pushing boulders
it is Athol Williams it is
Central Library’s poetry guest
(he a Read to Rise founder
inspiring children to read)

pushing boulders
an autobiography
from he who tunnelled
under a school fence
so that he could be free

(I think instantaneously
of the Boy in the
Striped Pyjamas
that could parallel here
what with apartheid
ever so present)

free he wanted to be
from the vagaries
of the dreaded system
that ordains and decrees
when sleep and play are

however we name it
the fence his boulder
an obstacle a hindrance
(crèche pre-school grade R)

pushing boulders
breaking barriers
5 degrees says he
from 5 top universities
a few brand-name cars too

telling us this
not as a boast
but as a boost

to those
pushing away
those boulders

and rising