Soweto smoke, 30 years on
For the youth of today
The earth need not be hungry
Swallowing sweat
Dripping from bruised brows
Winds beating upon backs
Still firm and strong
For the youth
The earth need not be so dry
For our earth is nurture
And the road ahead
Demands stamina
Beyond textbook falsity
For us
Who dare to imagine
The many Soweto Uprisings
Still raging in our backyards
Shadowed in the backdrop
By gated kingly mansions
The earth is not only hungry
It is also angry
For why would our youth
Whiz through suburbia schools
Attain shrill-sounding degrees
Globe-trot in first world offices
Yet know nothing about Biko?
Nor Nkrumah
Nor Malcom X & DuBois?
And still think themselves
Elites
More deserving
Than the hoodlums of Ndirande?
On this day of the African child
Thirty odd years after June 16, 1976
Tell the youth the truth
And let the earth mend
From this deathly thirst
Parching throats
And frying minds.