Slavery +

Slave to my ideas

Waging

A daily battle

Born of a generation

That never

Understood

Total peace

Slave to my identity

Nursing

A growing understanding

Born of a generation

That never

Accepted

Unequivocal inequality

Slave to my mind

Navigating

Changing human landscapes

Born of a generation

That never

Embraced

Forced negativity

By Simone Beatrice Naik Hagfeldt, 2014-04-27.

Apartheid failed and we live with the pain

Tell me about the Cape Flats

You ask

Trying to understand

The headlines

A narrative

So unbelievable

Perhaps

Tainted by my own

Cynicism

Voices bitter

Expectant

Embattled

Praying for peace

A last resort

Neither

Sodom or Gomorrah

Gam ‘nation

Lost

In the sand storm

For survival

There is

No set norm

By Simone Beatrice Naik Hagfeldt, 2014-04-16.

Life Lost

He was executed

Allegedly

No witnesses

We were only told

An Easter weekend vigil

His mother’s angel

Lifestyle choices

Transformed

Prematurely

Finding

Death’s voice

He was hunted

Allegedly

No witnesses

On the local news

Early in spring

His mothers’ angel

Lifestyle choices

Transformed

Prematurely

Finding

Death’s voice

By Simone Beatrice Naik Hagfeldt, 2014-04-16.

Men’s Choices

He smoked a joint

Ever since I remembered

My uncle non-violent

His soul lost to addiction

Long ago

Surrendered

He nursed from the bottle

Ever since I remembered

My uncle violently verbal

His life lost on a corner

Long ago

Surrendered

He worshiped a white pipe*

Ever since I remembered

My uncle a-laughing

His life lost gradually

Long ago

Surrendered

By Simone Beatrice Naik Hagfeldt, 2014-04-16.

The white pipe (Mandrax tablets finely crushed and mixed or sprinkled into a broken-off bottleneck or pipe and smoked) is not unique to South Africa , but is also found in Canada . http://www.blaauwberg.net/cic/articles/drugs/dagga_mandrax.asp

Everyone Affected

Our lives

Touched by violence

Choices

Un-debated

Detached

I narrate

My encounters

With their

Addiction

We

Are all victims

No party

Blissfully

Unaffected

Our realities

Mediated a truce

Choices

Deliberate

A relive

My encounters

With their

Obsessions

We

Are all survivors

No party

Regrettably

Unaffected

Our futures

Intricately connected

Choices

Conscious

I understand

A relive

My communion

To their dysfunction

We

Are all related

No party

Shamelessly

Unaffected

A discussion at work talking about a legal trial in the RSA triggers so many memories.

By Simone Beatrice Naik Hagfeldt, 2014-04-16.