The JRB presents an excerpt from When the Fires Go Down by Lesego Rampolokeng.
When the Fires Go Down
Lesego Rampolokeng
Black Ghost Books, 2026
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Holes (for stacy hardy)
1 earth open up, let me hide doctrine ancient) ‘hole in the bucket’ soul-racket demon-spawn ever needs feeding blood-drip voracious dentata chewing fail all else its own seeds chest up wet-work crop that image
Quake tremors the land’s hunger Gas explosions (this) earth flatulence Stinky silence it leaves trench-stenches putrescent senses intestines spill innards gouged out Social grant bandage cover the rage-place after the slaughter fact holes Not stones to surface (but) precious the bones acid drainage disappeared Buried under mining greed magnate avarice blood parasite/s holes insatiable snouts spin sinner-fables Around cannibal dinner-tables Many holes to fill societal cull freedom road-kill Apocalypse habitat Worm-home Maggot domicile Serpent at home solitary confinement beast-belly style vanished in(to) time mole hue-man holes Absence post-amputation the void in the mutilated
Hit rock to reach heaven pneumatic drill Hook pull crane lift cranium crack Upside-down pit-latrine sewer-system b/rainfall holes
Landmines earth-veins extraction The Trotsky-hatted Needle-eye gulley-ways History memory-wound itch in the depths Surface-scratch the deep gash Cut throats scream hollow Holes punched in the atmosphere peep through Socketed out remains after eyeballs pop holes
2 Cemetery blues graveyard riches High orifices mud-clogged the abyss’ importance Dreams trafficked scotched births Human organ rips bowel purge foetal-grabs Bulleted chest perforations cracked skulls Emptiness where existence was holes Riddled bodies rot cavities kwashiorkor-tummies Corporeal purses bed judiciary commerce chambers
slit arteries urethral gold coal diamond copper-shot-&-belted paths holes guinea-piglet surgical digs humanity dug-outs man-form walking deserts artificial poisoned waterways economic frost-bitten commercial drought struck dynamited fissures future-necks cut humanity deforested lives ransomed jesus rabbited & back stuck on corporate treasure island space where truth is X-ed out black sacrifice to/for the greater horde sucked up the crevice moon Kimberley big hole.
- Lesego Rampolokeng is a poet and performer, the author since 1990 of 14 books, including eight books of poetry, a playscript, and four novels. He has collaborated with visual artists, playwrights, filmmakers, theatre and opera producers, poets and musicians. His no-holds-barred style, radical-political aesthetic and instantly recognisable voice have brought him a unique place in South African literature. Rampolokeng won the NIHSS award for his poetry collection a half century thing, and the UJ fiction prize for his novel Bird-Monk Seding. He has performed his poetry in several countries in Europe, as well as in the USA, Colombia and Brazil, and has shared the stage with poets Linton Kwesi Johnson, Amiri Baraka, Jayne Cortez, Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze and Mutabaruka.
