(Not) While the city sleeps

February 4, 2014 by David Kapp 16 Comments

(Not) While the city sleeps
there is a child rape
crisis in the city
(a World Design Capital city)

(children should be
seen and not heard)

(Not) While the city sleeps
a terrifying epidemic
of sexual assault
(4 a day reported)

Never mind the police
Never mind our constitution
and flowery speeches about it
(Women’s Month quite far away
16 Days of Activism a memory-distant)

(Not) While the city sleeps
we attack our children
(and our women too)
with impunity

Malnutrition and hunger
crosses security fences
(that protect us from ourselves)
to be right on your doorstep

Is it the poor
Is it the hungry
Is it the jobless
matriculants and even
the homeless

Is it you
behind closed doors
in gated mansions
in ivory towers
be-suited in committee

How does the city sleep
(the city that works)
in the cold light of day

How do you sleep

“Child rape crisis in city” (Argus, 31 January 2014)

(Photo Credit: Sthembiso Lebuso / City Press / News 24)

Filed Under: General Tagged With: Cape Town, child rape, David Kapp, South Africa

You (children) know too much

January 26, 2014 by David Kapp 2 Comments

You (children) know too much

You children know too much
observes a grizzly-haired fellow
(his face on quite straight)
to the little ones with him
out in the village’s shop

(soon as you’re born
they make you feel small)

We heard that during apartheid
edicts issued from the mouths
of the guardians of our moralities
(girls wear pink boys)

(chop off their heads
chop off their thoughts
chop off their points
of view)

After all children
should be just
seen and not heard
never mind heeded

(are there young ones
at the Davos talk-shop
or any alternative)

You children know too much
no doubt you need to be
protected from us
who are far behind (still)

(speak when spoken at
we virtuously holler at them
second-hand smoke at our fingertips)

You children know too much
thinking sharp thoughts
getting all erudite
ready to vote one day

(or even to be elected
to rule from a yonder fortress)

You children know

Never a dull moment, Saturday morn, January 25 2014, out in the estate of Belthorn.

(Photo Credit: EventyEirin)

Filed Under: General Tagged With: children, David Kapp, South Africa, The very unfortunate

It was amazing

January 14, 2014 by David Kapp 3 Comments

It was amazing

It was amazing
sex workers disclose
while folks still can
(we have a right to know
those Mandela-moments)

It was amazing
good money made
outside of the launch
of the ANC’s manifesto

It was amazing
more clients came
election plans made
the country anticipates
(will it be work for all)

Participants’ hotels
lodges and their cars
the scene of much activity
(service delivery at work)

(was the handbook
suitably amended
allowing members
to go forth and engage
with the electorate)

It was amazing
the demand very high
big fish landed
colleagues wishing for more
(ANC rallies out yonder)

After the main event
local industry supported
was it business as usual
or was it the usual business

(though food and fruit vendors
had different responses
to the brisk street trading)

It was amazing
politicians at work
introducing our born-frees
and other impressionables
to the ways of the world

It was amazing

Sex workers in Mpumalanga’s capital city get to meet the ruling party’s politics (“Launch is a shot in arm for sex trade”, Cape Times, January 14 2014).

(Photo Credit: The Randburg Sun)

Filed Under: General Tagged With: David Kapp, Mpumalanga, sex workers, South Africa, The very unfortunate

Mix it

January 11, 2014 by David Kapp 2 Comments

Mix it

Mix it
your metaphors
images and symbols
professors of doom
demoralizing our people

(whosoever our people
might be this time round
matric results under scrutiny
on the horizon)

Mix it
like anti-majoritarian
liberal critics
(a dangerous elitism)

(making hay
on a scrabble board
with big words)

So says the guardians
of our selves
keepers of the keys
to the democratic project

(the democratic project
led astray by mixing it
some folks might say)

Mix it
twitter and tweet
even twerk your way
to the dustbins of history

Pass one pass all
(suffer our born-frees)
recite from your songbook
peddle your election-wares
in Mandela’s name

Mix your metaphors
and I’ll blend mine

Our red-blooded spokespersons counsel…. “all our people not to be demoralised by professors of doom and anti-majoritarian critics” (“Serious challenges face education system despite matric pass rate rising”, Cape Times, January 8 2014); and “Dangerous elitism a worry, and no dustbins should await failed Grade 12s” (Cape Times, January 10 2014).

(Photo Credit: eNCA / Bafana Nzimande)

Filed Under: General Tagged With: David Kapp, education, South Africa, The very unfortunate

Wish you were here

December 14, 2013 by David Kapp 6 Comments

Wish you were here

Wish you were here
voices a local headline
not used to solemnity
of the non-rude kind
in getting folks to read

Wish you were here
everyone wants a piece
the sweaty ones so-called
the selfie-I-me-mine crowd
not to mention those
of the empty promises variety

Wish you were here
Madiba-jiving away
piloting the path
of the straight and narrow
(now in whose hands is it)

It now is in our hands
wandering they are
often in the state’s coffers
or in someone else’s

Wish you were here
many lost souls flapping
in their rainbow fishbowls
on their way backward
to past habits and customs

Wish you were here
the weightiness lifted
if only for an Ubuntu-while
then it is the same old ground

The same old ground
women know your place
speak when you’re spoken
children should just be seen

Wish you were here
to remind those who need
to be reminded lest
we forget why we wish
you were here

A tabloid headline reporting on the Cape Town Stadium music tribute brings forth Pink Floyd’s sombre ditty “Wish you were here”, itself marking the life of an artiste-past.

(Photo Credit: PRI / Reuters)

Filed Under: General Tagged With: David Kapp, Madiba, South Africa, The very unfortunate

It’s that time (of the year again)

November 27, 2013 by David Kapp 4 Comments

It’s that time (of the year again)

It’s that time
of the year
again

The ritual of
16 Days of Activism
for No Violence
against Women and Children

(It is here
can you feel it)

(It is here
in the troubled area
that is the mind
and its beliefs
wherever it finds itself)

The ritual of 16 Days
is here with its white ribbons
official fanfare and road shows
smart slogans adorn banners
and good men marching

(a sudden media hype
tweeters and twerkers
personalities surface
all out to pledge themselves
with quasi-religious fervour)

How long
is the road
we will travel
these 16 days
and beyond

How long
still is the road
we have to travel
beyond
the 16 days

How many more
more 16 days

The Cape Times Editorial tells us that “16 days” is with us again; we hear of “16 days of activism to target 16 troubled areas”, and the SA Faith and Family Institute’s Elisabeth Petersen’s writes “Act against abuse” (Cape Times, 25 November 2013).

(Image Credit: The Daily Vox)

Filed Under: General Tagged With: 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children, David Kapp, South Africa, The very unfortunate

I am on cloud nine

November 9, 2013 by David Kapp 2 Comments

I am on cloud nine

I am on cloud nine
says a school principal
of two young people
just up your street

(but not high as a kite
at a Kite Festival
or on a local quick fix)

I am on cloud nine
for bursary recipients
one old one new

(in a manner of speaking
the old on a doctoral journey
the new inspired by law)

No victims they are
due to their circumstances
in post-apartheid South Africa
far too many still trapped
in racial and tribal habits

I am on cloud nine
down Spes Bona High-way
for young Shameez Camphor
a grade 12 pupil there
(and past matriculant Eugene Davids)

Setting boundaries and standards
consciously, of their own
their school helping them
to reach their potential

Inspiring and motivating
rather than the habitual
barefoot and pregnant
no-role-models variety

(business is as usual
are folks the world over
all charmed by bling-bling)

I am on cloud nine
might you not be too

Spes Bona High School principal Abu Solomons is on cloud nine (“Bursary recipient gets life-changing opportunity” – Athlone News, November 6 2013).

(Photo Credit: Cape Talk)

Filed Under: General Tagged With: Athlone, David Kapp, Shameez Camphor, South Africa, The very unfortunate

I nearly lost it

August 11, 2013 by David Kapp 3 Comments

I nearly lost it

I nearly lost it

on our Women’s Day

dropped Alice Walker’s

“A poem travelled

down my arm”

A gem amongst others

found at the Rotary Club

containers where there are

Books for the World

I nearly lost it

(later) on Eid-al-Fitr

traipsing around

showing off our collection

(The Babysitters Club series

A series of Unfortunate Events series

the Sweet Valley Twins series

even the Captain Underpants series)

The morning after

reading aloud extracts

to a literary associate

(from Mutual to Lansdowne

journeying Metro-hell turd-class)

What hair

we here!

Mandela

Douglass

Einstein

Between assassination

suicide

living

happily

I nearly lost it

on our Women’s Day

Our Women’s Day skies are blue as Alice Walker’s lovely tome drops from my grasp,
on the way to show off Belthorn Primary School’s collection of books in the neighbourhood. 
She invokes “Mandela with a free heart ... (Frederick) Douglass the same ... refusal of 
enslavement ... Einstein different but similar” in her intro titled “This is a strange book”

(Image Credit: Penguin Random House)

Filed Under: General Tagged With: David Kapp, South Africa, Women's Day

(Daddy) Why is everyone standing

July 28, 2013 by David Kapp 1 Comment

(Daddy) Why is everyone standing

(Daddy) Why is everyone standing
a young one asks of dad
he struggle-grey of head
like more than most about
(they weathered the storms)

Everyone is standing
over the road
at a monument
to an incident
we remember

(Others remember too
when reminded
perchance election-time
will occasion a sound-byte)

Over the road
everyone else
on their way
to whatever

Over the road
Robbie and Coline
standing tall
as did so many

(so many unknown
and even unheralded
as the past is reassembled
for the sake of the present)

Over the road
for all to see
and bear witness

(though under the radar
more often than not
as we turn the other cheek)

Everyone standing
reminding the world
how they got here
and why in the first place

Grey-heads, mostly, congregate, as they have done before, at the memorial tribute to slain Umkhonto we Sizwe freedom fighters Coline Williams and Robert Waterwitch, over the road from the Athlone Magistrate’s Court, 24 years on, 27 July 2013.

(Image Credit: South African History Online)

Filed Under: General Tagged With: Athlone, Coline Williams, David Kapp, Robert Waterwitch, South Africa, Umkhonto we Sizwe

I read the news today

June 25, 2013 by David Kapp 4 Comments

I read the news today

I read the news today
our press is gloomy
sending the world
a pessimistic image

A pessimistic image
no-one has as yet won
the war on poverty
(R500b leaves Africa yearly)

I read the news today
foot-in-jaw politicians
puckering up for elections
(a ‘people-orientated leader’
denies a R100,000 kickback)

I read the news today
rarely do we hear of
active democracies
hale and hearty citizens
who can read and write

(perhaps it is in parenthesis
secreted inside of digressions
by the enemies of the nation
awaiting the reputed rainy day)

And violence against women
is on a high especially in Africa
(1 in 3 women victims of partners)
(did our Finance chief get that)

But that is just
a little bit on the side
in the grander scheme of things

Gender-based violence makes the SAFM radio’s Weekend PMLive programme, in an interview with a Medical Research Council doctor,Sunday evening 23 June 2013 (see “One in three women victims of partners”, Cape Times, June 21 2013); whilst “Gordhan scorches ‘gloomy’ SA press” (Cape Times Business Report, June 20 2013).

“Africa loses R500 billion a year to illicit outflows – Mbeki”, and “Minister denies R100 000 game farm kickback claim” (both in the Cape Times, June 18 2013). By the by the line “I read the news today” comes from the Beatles’ ditty “A day in the life”.

(Photo Credit: David Harrison / Mail & Guardian)

Filed Under: General Tagged With: David Kapp, gender based violence, South Africa, The very unfortunate, violence against women