David Kapp, Belthorn Estate
I suppose no one knows nothing
everyone’s cheeks are turned
everyone is looking
the other way
not the Bonteheuwel way
and wherever else schools are not safe from its inhabitants
around and about the place
(be it here or any other landmass)
I suppose no one knows nothing
is the anguished response from a high school learner
her school vandalized
by her country’s occupants
unless of course the aliens
have landed at long last
on planet Mother Earth
to perform treasonable acts
on the street where you live
destroying schools wrecking
libraries ruining many a future
(the oddest of activities this is
the poor stealing from the poor
in a nation-state where folks
make-believe quite religiously)
I suppose no one knows nothing
sounds like Afrikaaps
and not my mother’s
tea-drinking English
(or mine even)
(after all
language is power
and there is
power in language)
I suppose no one knows nothing
shackled as we are
as free as we are
* Written in response to stories about burglaries at schools and creches reported in last week’s papers.