park station
johannesburg
frowns
with cold
this morning
& a sensitive nose
collides
with
the yelling armpit
at park station
we are all makwerekwere
here
zulu
ngamla
shona
tswana
vhenda
whether you came
by gautrain
galo
or city to city bus
———-
an ode to braam
braam rises
to kiss
the unclothed skies
leaving park station
& joubert park
behind
yoruba collides with shona
in biccard street
& a smell of zol rules the air
rea vaya bus amper hits
the nyaope addict
in de korte street
car guards
trying
to catch the fattest worm
outside burning hair salons
bricklayers
hanging from skyscrapers
& alcohol advertisements
blessing giant
billboards
men in suv’s
poaching wits students
at kitchener’s
the underpaid blacks
consoling themselves
with double shots of hennessey
at bannister hotel
but at night
braam is caught
between hillbrow thighs
quenching sexual thirst
———-
Poetry: Zama Madinana
Image: SA Tourism (remixed)
Blessed work Zama. You really paint a picture with words. I especially like these works because I resonate with these two spaces as a child from KZN traveling to JHB, park station becomes a home and seeing it evolve over the years, becoming a home to so many other people, you wonder how one can claim that space to be their own when there is so much influx of the ‘other’ with so much movement and action…I really appreciate your skills…
I came by gautrain and thanks so much Zama
One love