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Friday, December 13, 2013

We sang

We sang Shosholoza
the day you won
your freedom
was celebrated with dance
ululations rose to
frost-bitten stars

Fresh from the hot springs I
steamed joy like a prayer
until my hair iced over
and I could no longer distinguish
rapture from chill



I secretly took a little
credit for your release - coming
right after a hundred
students marched an empty
stretch of I-25 United 

World against apartheid!

Ever since
though my lens collapsed
the gumboot has tattooed
the beat of protest
in my battles grand
     and small


I still sing Shosholoza
one more voice raised
for justice