Just up this street
as easy as that
a youth activist-former
and trade unionist
advises me

we are out
Muizenberg way
where once
we could not be

(we could actually
were we hewers of wood
and drawers of water
not seen as a threat
to the state we are in)

Just up this street
or words to that effect
there I’d find another
former youth activist
from the old school

he a favourite
of our mom’s
and a visitor
frequent

Just up this street
as easy as that
(or so it seems
to one now familiar
with the territory)

I am given directions
(hands all a-flailing)
by the comrade
he greying at the chin

(as so many are
though a number
have them self-inflicted
given their prime position
at the feeding trough)

Just up this street

(A familiar face greets me, out Muizenberg-way, Sunday morning, 17 February 2019.)