She runs through the street
In terror, distraught,
Bloodied knees bleeding
Mad eyes, contort.
The ones with the guns
Are hot on her trail
Mercilessly manifest,
Rapaciously male.

Windows shattered
Shelving laid bare
Unruly rioting
Careers everywhere.
Fires are burning,
Dead bodies in heaps,
Maniacal screaming
Killing Cops in the streets....

South Africa burns
As atrocities' flail,
Shotguns blasting
Lethality's hail.
Black men fleeing
In blind panic's fear,
Cowering whites know,
**** well, death is near.

Disorder splits
Through street and town
Causing Judges gavels,
To pound up and down.
Good hope and promise
Both strewn and escaped,
Caste out amidst filth
And callously *****.

Hope now beyond
The very ken of man
Seeing hate and fear
Has taken command.
Balance now tipped
Across the scale,
Hurling Africa's carnage
Beyond the pale.


M.
Watching Africa burn.
13 July 2021