New Dawn (New Dawn)
is the exasperated lament
of a caller on evening radio

(almost the first thing I do
on my return from Wellington
is to turn the radio on)

an afternoon well-spent
almost thwarted
by the non-appearance
of the 0930am Cape Flats train

My waiting time spent listening
to a Richard Branson look-a-like
(he a patron of our local library)
grousing on about the Third World

I have a Metro Plus ticket
for free as a pensioner’s perk
but I think of excusing myself
to go and sit with the masses
(in the more familiar cattle trucks)

(instead I join him
for the plus of soft seats
only to be rudely jolted
back to our Azanian reality
of vandalized seat covers)
going back
I just miss a train
that was late in leaving
but another is soon there

and at the Cape Flats end
Metro Plus is sardine-packed
(all four trips without any
train security in sight)

New Dawn (New Dawn)
same old same old
an afternoon well-spent