Classic Poem

If you say A you have to say B
A is always against apartheid
B is color blind

I want to write to you brother but you're further
than the past century than a land of origin
than a poem or a document

if you say A you have to say B
A is always against apartheid
B is color blind

so many guides who leave me in the lurch
so many sides from which I try approaching
you to get nearer — the more clothes I throw off
the colder it gets the further you seem

if you say A you have to say B
A is always against apartheid
B is color blind

my eyes can't get enough of drowsing thorntrees
between red-grass and thin-shinned plovers
my garden strewn with loads of roses — only for my children
do I lay down my life

here I am learning to write — I can't do otherwise











From Poetry Magazine, Vol. 188, no. 1, April 2006. Used with permission.