They have amassed massive wealth from our commonwealth

Leaving the common man with no food on his mat

And no means for his health.

With a pair of corrupt eyes

They peer from within their tinted SUVs

At fellows who not long ago were their peers

Until a verdict from  a Supreme Cult of power brokers

Catapulted them to coloured chambers

Where they hold the yam and the knife

Dispensing crumbs only after they have had their fill.

 

Are they too dumb to feel the anger in the land

Caused by hunger and fear for the future?

 

Are they too blind to see the handwriting on the wall

That spells imminent doom for a blessed nation?

 

Are they so eminently deaf

That they cannot hear

The cancerous cackling of livid chickens coming home to roost?

 

Are their flabby skins,

Covered with flamboyant fabrics, too thick

Or their brandy-breathing nostrils too tickled

To sense the smell of kegs of gunpowder

Waiting to be ignited by a strike of nationwide march?

 

They divert palliatives meant for all

To their friends and relatives

Leaving millions in awe

Of these thieves they put in power!

 

They dream of their second terms;

Some even their third,

When the Terms of Office of the first

Have not been adhered to as sworn to.

 

Who will wake our Power-men and their cohort

From their slumber in State Chambers?

 

From Random Thoughts: A Collection of Essays and Poems

By Tony Ekata

Pretoria, February 25, 2024