Lullabies

You sing songs like masteress.

My head on the pillow:

Yours head lying on my chest lightly.

Soft fingers stroking through your pillow too:

The hirsute.

Raindrops, I heard of them on the soil:

Dust was expunged from the soils.

I forgot of creation.

You were the only creation.

You lulled me to sleep.

You dug deep into the crusts of the earth.

It is there that you laid my troubles.

It is in the morning that I can see damp soils

My dreams have been brimmed with phantoms,

Last night, I haven’t even dreamt.

I bow for your lullabies.

Copyright © 2015, Ponatshegelo Mista Poke Katlholo

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I am not afraid

When I was a green boy,

I used to see ghosts

And I came to make an enemy.

I abhorred stars and the moon.

I had no nerve for the behaviour

Of the sun when it reached my head:

When it approached my right hand.

Right now I am facing to the south.

I used to crawl to my sisters’ blankets.

They thought I was afraid of the night

And they used to toss me away

As one tosses garbage from a bin.

They had no spiritual eye.

I have seen ghosts and I have

Fought ghosts.

Fear was embedded in me.

I am not afraid,

But I had terror every time

When the clouds of darkness approached

For ghosts fear the day.

They want time like soot.

I developed more bark in those times.

I am not afraid.

Throw anything, I will catch and deal with it.