(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)