His face lit up
the grey-head’s did
on hearing these
few magic words
Book (Festival)
Read (to Rise)

he loves reading he says
pointing to Lentegeur Library
down the road we’re in
but he uses Anybook
and reads off his phone

The little colony’s first
a Cape Flats Book Festival
initiated by Read to Rise
is happening somewhere here
(I see no signage no hint
of the historic event)

Eventually I find
West End Primary School
where there is writing on the wall
(an innovative and creative idea)
English mostly and Maths
and I see some obvious errors
the language going a bit awry

I tramp on
past the big chess
painted on the tarmac
and there is life
a Cape Flats Book Festival
in a former apartheid homeland
(has anything changed since
have things remained the same)

Oakey is here
as well as faces familiar
and many a selfie is taken
(I’ll do no name-dropping)

pity that Anybook reader
couldn’t make it

His face would have
lit up

(amid the country’s
doom and gloom)