Like the bouncing sounds of seasons
Coiled antelopes leapt over the velt;
On ready ground
Stirring, twitching, gyrating
Bursting
The coat dies to feed;
Like the gathered pull of elastic
Circling the waste or wrist
Resilience binds the plundered crowds;
Like the spasms of a sparrow
Soaring its little joy.

Some whalelike warmth
Wholesome, birth panged
The deep cold dilations of the ocean womb:
Yet how much the
tall leafy hands of the palm
launch…
from their shell-lodges
feathery fledglings
zigzag into space.

The snow peaks of old-age
Like firm night rains
Tenderly anchor in variant valleys
We balance our eyes on
The arched road of their backs
We arch our brave dream’s embryo to
New horizons of rainbows springs
Into the future’s pounding shores.

April 1973
Lindiwe Mabuza