A place with untrusting neighbors
Land that is millions of acres
Merry laughter of innocent children fills the dusty streets.
“I don’t want to see you with Mma Ketshabang’s son”, Mama insists.
The older boys sit at the shop and smoke their lungs away
Indifferent to adults coming their way.
I am from a place where lover’s come alive at night
As if the night sky ignites their passions.
I am from a place lacking in ambitions.

The other place glorified gangsterism
A place was schoolboys salute vandalism
Yet, some dream of being rappers and artists
Life crushes those dreams with hard fists
Between a rock and a hard place very few succeed.
From the graveyard, you can hear the unfulfilled lives’ screams
I am from a place of dead dreams

I am from the backyard of the city of Platinum.
The morning streets are filled with wrinkle-skinned men
Propelled to the mines in the hopes of digging up ores that feed them.
From a one-roomed house split with a ragged curtain.
If only it could hide away the brutal realities
Of poverty pain and broken families
I am from a place of unfulfilled fantasies

One has lush green mountains
That feed a mother and her calf.
Whispers and shadowy rumors float around, ‘tis but human.
Kindness trumps though, see it in the smile of Man Susan.
I am from a place where few make it past the barrier of poverty
Yet those who do, look back with a ladder of generosity.

See, I am from different places
Etched into my skin are the traces
of their mark on my life.
The bits and pieces of these build me up
I aspire to be better therefore it is a mild yoke.
I am from places of mustard seed hope.