i had a dream

i had a dream

The swiftness of it
It's menacing hiss
Only one thing in mind, to make short work of the scalps of our heads

Down the street, we run
We run like raged oxen
Each one for himself
We race into a dark forest,
Jump into the river below
Gorges unkown to us
But the river runs elsewhere
Climbing over the boulders
Running, each one wanting to save his own life.
The crazed creature hisses over our heads
The sight of water is promise
As stagnant as it may be, I jump
The others follow
No scent no sense
The hissing serpent has lost
.....it was a battle
over and won for others,
as they gather their things and head home

But not me
I still have to fight
We ran a race together,won a battle
But now, it's me against them
Knives in hand
They approach
Unarmed as I am, I fight

Taking the knives from their hands
with my bare hands
They cut deep into my flesh
The blood trickling down
Becoming one with the stagnant water
But it will never be stagnant
It runs and speaks

The blood of my death will not rest
It will boil day and night
Down in the river
It will sing songs, songs unknown
Songs of my heart
The sound of the rain will not silence it
For it speaks louder, with a resonance from the past for the future
...................this will go on
until the doers of my death are caught and improsoned
if not hanged......so my blood cries out in the river

But I wake up to realise that it was all a dream
what happened to the days when children dreamt of
...having money under their pillows
when their only concern was homework not done
Is it that things have evolved
Or could it be that I am no longer a child?

Andisiwe Nakani