Your sole is broken 

A fellow traveller
(a woman to boot)
observes as I stoop
to examine the sole
of an age-old boot

Knee-high they are
rescued me many times
from the searching hands
of apartheid’s police

(contraband stuffed
down my length of leg
the side-pockets usually
filled with meeting notes)

Your sole is broken
couldn’t keep up
with my striding
here there and
whereever too

Your sole is broken
perchance a slip
of the Freudian variety
in these challenging times

(who would have thought
as we are supposed to be
free from all iniquities
post-1994’s Majority Rule

Your sole is broken
can it be fixed
(do we actually want to
and at what cost)
or is it beyond repair

(By David Kapp)

(Image Credit 1: Community Arts Project / UWC Centre for Humanities Research) (Image Credit 2: Community Arts Project / UWC Centre for Humanities Research)

You move too slow

You move too slow
I get to hear
from a greyhead
behind me

not in the pecking order
not at the feeding trough
but in a shopping queue

You move too slow
clipping my heels
as she veers 
to the right

to another queue
where the grass is greener
and there is more
on offer

You move too slow
the over 60s are urged 
(on evening etv news)
not to rush to centres 
for their vaccine shots

so I am just
practising my slowness
my lack of speed
or slothfulness even

amused once was I
to hear two queueing locals
pondering which service
was the more slothful
(we won’t say which)

You move too slow
could be said to be

The state we are in

(By David Kapp)

(Photo Credit: Health-e News / NW Health Department)