Vitamins On My Face

When the Moon is Nearer

Wind-driven land cries
on lunar prints of a quiet night
say I must return to my roots.
To which roots do I return
when your landscape
is foreign flora?
The sun is older
and the moon is nearer
but the trader’s ways
are gentle nowadays;
his handshakes could catch
a whale if they were bait-
He flies luggage and your baggage
and the new slave
at a wink of a wave.
That’s why your blood
Is driven by rhythm and doubt
on sub-Saharan desert lands;
the only battlegrounds
You can see from the moon.
-Solly-Case Nkadimang

Poems include Eyes on the face of change; Joe Morolong: ILO-tonic canals; John Taolo Gaetsewe; and The Lioness of Tlapeng: Dr. Ruth Segomotsi Mompati.