From Come and Hope with Me by Mongane Wally Serote

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In that day and in that life

we lived in dreams and also in desire

we hoped and believed

even when the day crushed and popped our time

turning the sky crimson and the night cast upon us

dark and cold shadows

and the sky, stern, hovered above us

we lived in dreams and hopes

strong

we sang

we chanted

we jumped and danced

and we were aware of the steep and slope of the road

and of the load on our shoulders.

with skill

we lived in dreams and desire

loving life with our large hearts

even though nostalgia like fire

burnt and burnt our gut

all these we mounted, jumped and chanted

our eyes fixed on the road

remember

the passion of our hearts

the blinding ache and pain

when we heard the hysterical sobs

of our little children crying against fate

which violated them and offered them no life

or the frightening cry of a man

who climbs life with no hope in his heart

we heard these. we knew them. we absorbed them

but we surged forward

knowing that life is a promise and that that promise is us

the promise lives in the staring eye of a song