A New Jerusalem

by Stuart Rees

 

We see again that politician

whose heart has been removed,

whose white sepulchre mask

has marble eyes with dots

which gaze at his own convictions

but are blind to others= lives.

We hear a leader who chuckles

into microphones at cricket matches,

mouths mateship to deafen the noise

of his cruelty towards those

who cannot be considered voters,

and to a young man locked away.

We have a water shortage,

rivers suffocated when they need to flow,

farmers killing themselves when they want to grow,

the indifferent hosing driveways

taking long showers with their wives

and washing their four wheel drives.

We have been given a due process explanation

for a despot being hanged,

the righteous insisting this was not revenge

but it looks like camouflage for cronies

who gave the gas, armed the man

and have broken the Geneva ban.

We are bewildered by the official violence

when we can also see

the magic of children=s innocence,

the imagination of artists

and the hospitality of mothers

who nurture so many futures.

We know we can depend

on balance in the forests,

harvests from the seas,

and can feed from humanity=s

*ubuntu-like feel

of fascination for difference.

We must find the life enhancing sights

of shores swept clean by tides,

of cities without walls, gardens without fences

and of khaki illusions cured

by winds with rain and by high pressure bars

which announce the sun again.

From the shadows of satanic mills

we can build reverence without religion,

resolutions without armies

and so taste the beauty of unusual heights

in streets made sacred

by a poetry for all the people=s lives. 9

SJR Hyams Beach 5 1 07

Editor: * AUbuntu@ refers to the spirit of the community. It is a shortened version of a South African saying that comes from the Xhosa culture: "Umuntu ngumuntu ngamuntu." This means that I am a person through other people. It means that my humanity is tied to yours