Ike: Cry of the silent stream
when prestige is for leaders
where blue lagoons serve causes
but the down-trodden are congested
in the land of plenty
Allan: winter veld ready for blackening
tinder-box set for lighting
at Bloemfontein, place of cheetahs
the dogs of Vlakplaas bark, no way
in the land of plenty
Siphiwe a naked woman runs away
from a blasting time-bomb
in the streets of the golden city
like someone in a porno movie
in the land of plenty
Ike dogs sniff breakfast food and branch
people exchange sex fun with robo corpse
ba bula donkey mampara and wild animals
children swap roles with their parents
in the land of plenty
Allan stretch up, blou van ons Azania
drought only breaks when it pains here
suiping for too long at rivers of megalomania
now we wake babbalas
in the land of plenty
Siphiwe poems become forbidden fruit
fiery metaphors are buried
history becomes a mystery
devils lead saints to the pastures of sin
in the land of plenty
Ike tv shows roasting chicken rotating
the program baking over a micro oven
man queues for a bus
in someone else’s wardrobe
in the land of plenty
Allan once we’ve danced the toyi-toyi
dead folk become new spirits
‘no strike’ export zones employ Springbok Patrols
to guard boss-investor visits
to the land of plenty
Siphwe guns sing like bongos
lovers fake in response to fear
a charred corpse lies like a dog’s carcass
in the war zones of the shacktowns
Ike candle light face of darkness
into Majuba hill mobile
from abc to xyz
city lights of Verwoerd tunnel
in the land of plenty
Allan Nofanezile Maria Masilela, aged 92
said this about voting:
when I applied for my dompas, I made a cross
when I got married I made another cross
1994 I made what will probably be my last cross
in the land of plenty
Siphiwe yesterday is a caricature
as we gather to celebrate dawn
is our future a mirage?
the revolution a pimperrnel?
in the land of plenty
