As I’ve mentioned before I’m not into poetry, most of it just sounds like mucho blah blah to me.
But, once in a while someone nails it.
I’ll admit I’ve avoided most of the media frenzy regarding the passing of Nelson Mandela, what little I did catch was as shallow… well as shallow as our Fifth Estate has gotten to be these days.
But, this evening on NPR a young man’s short poem stuck me as saying more that hours worth of talking-heads’ canned soundbites.
Thabiso Mohare
https://twitter.com/Afurakan
"An Ordinary Man" In the end he died an ordinary man Only rich in wrinkles from where the spirit had been It would be the saddest days And we watched the world weep For a giant bigger than myths A life owned by many Now free as the gods Some cried as though tomorrow was lost Some celebrated, questioned freedom and its cost Some seized the chance to stand on his shoulders While others cursed his grave and scorned wisdom of the elders Stadiums were littered And those in the know spoke their fill Mourners paid tribute Monarch to President made the bill But still Where do I we begin In telling our children where these old bones have been And that we as next of kin Have inherited his struggle And he forever lives through our skin And on his last day When the earth reclaims what's hers We will surrender his body but reignite his spirit We will write all we know and let history read it to our children And remind both scholar and critic That there once was a prisoner of freedom Who gave the world back its heart But in the end He died an ordinary man. Thabiso Mohare aka. Afurakan
