{"id":24478,"date":"2020-11-25T06:05:47","date_gmt":"2020-11-25T13:05:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/?p=24478"},"modified":"2022-11-24T20:10:49","modified_gmt":"2022-11-25T03:10:49","slug":"ashes-to-ashe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/?p=24478","title":{"rendered":"ASHES TO ASHES"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
\r\n
\"\"

Kwanele<\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

ASHES TO ASHES\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

A fly sits on a woman\u2019s lip
she spits and swears<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

a priest in black and white\u00a0
raises his hands\u00a0
\u201cAshes to ashes may our holy god give\u00a0<\/em>
your bleeding hearts peace\u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Plastic petals
red and white\u00a0
rain on the wood\u00a0
covering your flesh
dead leaves falling\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Your mother throws soil
dust falls
her tears follow the motion\u00a0
wind scatters them\u00a0
before reaching ground
mourners swallow\u00a0
march behind her in procession\u00a0\u00a0
footprints embroider\u00a0
the path from your grave<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I stay and read the headstone,\u00a0
\u201cNomaphelo, 1973-1992,\u00a0<\/em>
we will remember you always<\/em>
beloved daughter\u201d<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Walking from where you sleep<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I remember your legend:\u00a0
the day the gods made you\u00a0
they carved and carved\u00a0
once happy they called a heavens\u2019\u00a0Imbizo<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
the heavens came\u00a0
breathed life into you and next day\u00a0
you opened your eyes<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

At five you asked the priest when god
was coming to our village
he pulled your cheeks and turned his back\u00a0
at six you chased policemen with a spoon\u00a0
and at twelve taught us\u00a0
mellow yellow<\/em>\u00a0engine sound\u00a0
yaqal\u2019inyakanyaka
rooftops raining
a million feet rise\u00a0
Molotov cocktails\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

White lies ashes<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

On your fifteenth birthday\u00a0
we exchanged gifts on Makana\u2019s Kop
three years later an East Cape paper\u00a0
reported \u201cliberation movements unbanned,\u00a0<\/em>
exiles come home\u201d<\/em>
the story of the girl found naked\u00a0
at the foot of\u00a0Ntabezono<\/em>,
a stick shoved into her vagina\u00a0
did not make news\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

A young boy found the silver chain\u00a0
I gave you in his brother\u2019s jacket
Mothers whispered\u00a0\u201ca familiar voice,\u00a0<\/em>
early hours of the morning\u00a0<\/em>
pleading forgiveness<\/em>\u201d\u00a0
Fathers moaned of \u201cthe howling dogs<\/em>
and\u00a0the screaming whore\u00a0<\/em>
who disturbed our sleep<\/em>\u201d\u00a0\u00a0
The law spoke for months\u00a0
of\u00a0\u201ccircumstantial evidence\u201d<\/em>
looked your mother in the eye\u00a0
\u201cdocket lost, case now closed<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Two decades on\u00a0
I rest my head on your stone\u00a0
and hear your heart\u2019s beat\u00a0
the sound of a tidal force twirling\u00a0
waves of fists that roll time\u00a0
into cannon-balls
churning flames that shred the sky\u00a0
as they rise
roaring
Kwanele!<\/em>
Kwanele!<\/em>
Kwanele!<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

(Photo credit: New Frame<\/a> \/ Barry Christianson)<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ASHES TO ASHES\u00a0 A fly sits on a woman\u2019s lipshe spits and swears a priest in black and white\u00a0raises his hands\u00a0\u201cAshes to ashes may our holy god give\u00a0your bleeding hearts peace\u2026\u201d\u00a0 Plastic petalsred and white\u00a0rain on the wood\u00a0covering your fleshdead leaves falling\u00a0 Your mother throws soildust fallsher tears follow the motion\u00a0wind scatters them\u00a0before reaching groundmourners […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":302,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1466,6570,2872,83],"class_list":["post-24478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-16-days-of-activism-against-gender-violence","tag-kwanele","tag-siphokazi-mthathi","tag-south-africa","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/302"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24478"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26659,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24478\/revisions\/26659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}