I Will Write

Mpho Ramaano

Tell me your problems,
Tell me your quarrels,
Tell me your concerns,
Tell me what eats you within,
I will not provide solutions
But, I will write.

When you young boys and girls
Linger the streets hopelessly,
When you go days
Even weeks without food,
With no ways
To make things good.
I will not give you food,
I will not take you to school,
But, I will write.

When you are flooded away
Into the dry streets,
When you feed
Sleep and keep
In the deep
Rubbish bins
I will not give you shelter,
I will not build you houses,
But, I will write.

When you stay
In the dull poverty-stricken villages
With no water and other services,
I will not build you dams and tarred roads,
I will not bring tanks of water,
But, I will write.

When you take off
To the dirty streets
To clean filthy tarred roads
For a living,
I will not give you
A decent job,
I will not give you money,
But, I will write.

When you my sister
Stand the nights half naked
On the street corners
Taking every man,
Even dogs
Between your thighs
To make a living.
I will not give you a job,
I will not give you money either,
But, I will write.

When you in the distant villages
Spend months
Without seeing your ward councillor,
When you have no one
To lodge your complaints to
I will not bring him/her to you,
I will not invade the municipality offices
In protest,
But, I will write.

When you HIV/AIDS pregnant women
Need an anti-retroviral drug
To save your children’s lives,
I will not give you the drug,
I will not take off to the streets
In protest,
But, I will write.

When you an unemployed father of six
Wish the next elections never come.
I will not stop the campaigns,
I will not tear their posters
Into smaller pieces,
But, I will write.

Do not cry people,
Just tell me, the poet,
I will not sit in fruitless conferences,
I will not write in vain,
But, I will write,
To make things right.

LitNet: 14 February 2006

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