They did not tell us
About the full scope of their poverty
We could not understand their battles
Food on the table
Fire in the belly of the black stove
A slap instead of a hug
Those were their realities
We had no concept of
They did tell us
About the full scope of their poverty
We tried to forget the impact of their
battles
Food on the table
Fire in the belly of the braaivleis fire
A shout instead of a hug
Those were our realities
They had little control of
They won’t listen
To the full scope of our poverty
We try to forget the impact of our battles
Food on the table
Fire in the walls of the microwave
A hug instead of a shout
This is their reality
In freedom they have control of their
destiny
We don’t understand (perhaps)
The full scope of our privilege
Calculating the cumulative impact of our
collective victories
Food on the table
Fire in our hearts and restless minds
Accepting and rejecting motivational ideas
Trapped in this painful reality
We are all still on the precipice of the
socially excluded humanity
By Simone Beatrice Naik Noemdoe,
2013-01-27.
Today I realised that my mother was born in
the middle of the World War II. We knew that her father was in soldier in the
war and that she had hard life growing up, but we did not really understand the
full scope of their hardship. In turn our children are even further removed
from understanding this history. Poverty and hardship seems to be topics the
poor would like to avoid. Stories about the good times and motivation to work
hard and push through the tough times is how we seem to move forward.
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