Matthew Caretti

Township

I am somehow of this place. And yet a complete stranger. I know it in bits and pieces, as it knows me. I leave it reluctantly, yet cannot wait to go.

Shatale
home of my
divided self

These township hovels and RDP* boxes cage those long ago forced to the hinterlands. Leaking roofs and hollow promises mock the new dispensation. All is not lost. But it is losing.

old combines
by the roadside
nowhere to go

Game drives and world cups create illusions. Yet here we are. Another day ended, the western horizon still aglow. Beside the empty road, a headlight beam.

night driving
a hyena's scowl
replaces laughter

Note: RDP is an acronym for South Africa's post-apartheid Reconstruction and Development Programme.