Tokoloho & Mbera, a poem by Rethabile Masilo

We are alone again tonight (she said),
despite how people stand with us
or stand together apart.
There is no sense we seek to make
of old events. Things are what they are.
Life was careless with our condition.

Though sleep sends old men up the stairs
in a storm to their room & they fall,
flail, feel the devil on their legs, I am happy
that for now, under our shelter,
you are with me�even if your voice
gets lost among stars in the galaxy outside.

Can you hear me now? (he said).



Tokoloho is in dad's arms.
Mbera (nickname) is in the black-arm,
red-front sweater

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