The Johannesburg Review of Books presents a new poem by Allan Kolski Horwitz.
~~~
NO ONE IS SAFE
GANG BULLET CASH
that’s the one t-shirt
Freedom Dignity
another
in the street
young boys play soccer with a rolled up raincoat
duck in and out
as cars race by
older majitas slouch by the spaza shop
three toothless women stuck to the stairs
let them suck the baby’s milk
and there is music
relentless beat
there is always music coming from the shebeen
in the garage on Phuza Mansions
where an old man shuffles by with empties
he is afraid of the girls at the corner
you know those three on the roof of Cinnamon Court
he buys them airtime if they’ll visit
discretely
across the road from the hair salon
the ruin where the homeless
sleep on the ceiling
lights up every night
the flicker of these fires
fires phantoms:
NO ONE IS SAFE FROM THE GANG THAT COMES
OVER THE WALLS
the old man shuffles past the vandaliction
rat tails gash the bathroom rails
inside the mayoral office the mayor
repeats reports about urban decay
the media broadcast his policy:
no surrender to the mafias
FOREIGNERS are responsible
the boys playing soccer do not see the official sedan
the man behind the wheel barely wakes from his ORGASM
the youngest boy’s in the gutter
neck broken on impact
the bloody fender bends back into the sunset
lucky the media were asleep in their hammocks
lucky there is no one to video the panties on the car seat
the mayor’s open bottle of heavenly spirits
now
the oldest boy’s crying
ball popped game exploded
clouds shade the street
wind whips round the water tower
the old man shares his words
-he is a guy who had dreams-
‘wasekhaya
no one is safe from the gang that comes over the walls
no one is safe
but the biggest crooks are the white collar brigade
who sell you insurance sell you electric wire and boiling hot dogs
truly
there’s no point trying
to play it safe
by living in a safe
there’s no point dying trying to keep the PIN safe
there’s no point trying to outrun the inhuman race’
© Allan Kolski Horwitz, 2020; a previous version appeared in Botsotso 18: Poetry from Private and Public Places, 2018
- Allan Kolski Horwitz lives in Johannesburg. He writes in several genres and is an educator and activist as well. He is a member of the Botsotso Publishing editorial board and co-ordinator of the Botsotso Ensemble’s performing arts programme. He has published four books of poetry – Call from the Free State (1979), Saving Water (2005), There are Two Birds at My Window (2012) and The Colours of Our Flag (2016); and written and directed several plays – The Pump Room, Comrade Babble, Boykie and Girlie, Jerico, Book Marks and Taking Everything into Account.
The JRB Poetry Editor is Rustum Kozain
