District Six

A poem about forced removals in South Africa in 1966

Tonight I sat in the Fugard theatre
Named after a playwright and a teacher
But who should have been a preacher
I would have been there Sunday after Sunday
Play after Play
Tonight I watched District Six
Where houses fell like pick up sticks
Except the sticks were housing bricks
Violated by the government in 1966
I shed some tears
But I'll never know their fears
I'll never know how much salt flowed
Down the pavements of Hanover Road
I'll never know the halted hope
Of those who sat in the Star Bioscope
The bulldozers crushed multiracial turf
The reverse of Roy Campbell's Serf
In which he was the one toppling government
Unlike our leaders involved in a colour argument
Koeksisters,roti and chow mein
Lived side by side,lane by lane
And now tonight's cast carries resident dreams
In Cape Carnival scenes
But down to the East and around the bend
We mirror you in P.E.'s South End
I hold South Africa up to a mirror
And see the reflection of a George Orwell sinner
Animal Farm on repeat
No respect, eat the poor for meat

Then the singing brings me back
And we start to clap
And I'm grateful for the dancers' dreams
Carried in the hue of their swaying seams
And tomorrow my sorrow will abate
When somewhere in a Long Street antique shop my daughter will state
This Drommedaris on this money is not fair
And I'll stop in my tracks and stare
Relieved I have done something right
My daughter is aware of another one's plight