Sometimes when I’m sad
I feel like I’m in a dark hole
There’s no light, but I have to fight
Holding my mirror out of the window
The reflection I see
Shows how horrible the world is

Sometimes when I’m sad
I wonder how to find my soul
And where bread is not stone and water is not scarce
On my hands are hand cuffs
Steel fangs
Nails whose bite is painful

Sometime when I’m sad
My heart becomes cold like the ocean breeze

Sometime when I’m sad
I feel like I am behind bars where my soul is in shackles
My mind caged in a dark prison
That is why I end up doing unconscious things

Sometime when I’m sad
I think about my brothers and sisters
Who are treated like slaves
The veins are rolling
Twisting roughly on the hands
Our sisters are victims of sexual molestation
Our mothers turned to punching bags
Sometime when I’m sad
I think about children and women who are treated like animals

Sometime when I’m sad
I think about the people living under the bridge in the winter
No food, no clothes, no blankets, no shelter
How are they surviving in this situation?

Sometime when I’m sad
I ask myself
Where is equality?
Where is democracy?
Where is justice when people are being murdered and perpetrators get away?
What have we done to live like this?
What is wrong in this world?
Why do I exist?

Sometime when I’m sad
I think I should be grateful for what I have
Because what I have, others don’t
Life is like riding a bicycle
You have to keep your balance and peddle forward

Sometime when I’m sad
I think you don’t need a remote to change life situations like channels
You only need a self-remote
With it you will change the world
I keep in mind that at the end of the tunnel there will be light
“Challenges are not to kill us but to make us stronger”
Sometime when I’m sad
I think: Why am I sad?

***

This piece of writing was created as part of the WritingMe Writing Clubs with Sophumelela High School, Western Cape. Find out more here.