What My Mama Told Me

By Sinenhlanhla londiwe Meyiwa Magcaba • 

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What my mama told me

My mama told me to grow up

And be beautiful like our sunset,

But what she forgot to tell me 

Was to pack a gun for the world

I was growing into had men with no scruples 

And no respect for women 

So before the sunset I had packed my armour 

And these feelings of animosity I’d harbour

I paced through the streets for my harmer 

No longer anointed with purity, with nothing

To lose

The stinking attitudes and comments

Of vendors

Fueling my desire for vengeance

I sit on a bench and light up my gway 

Looks of disgust come shooting my way

I repel them with the smoke I exhale from my mouth

These people and their thoughts are of no interest 

To me

Then after a fruitless day, I drag myself home

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This poem was originally published on UzanokuKhanya and written by Sinenhlanhla londiwe Meyiwa Magcaba, a depressed sexual violence survivor and aspiring writer, who wants to change the Black community’s beliefs and norms explicitly through her writings.