torch

Salutations; Madiba, Graça Machel-Mandela, Steve Biko, Bob Marley, Hector Pieterson...
to mention but a few...
But we are all here
...In this crowd

It's all the same

You say I am prettifying..
White washing
with sweetness

I am taking a ride through the galaxy
on the tail
of a shooting star

We see Biko in his coffin
His face has been tidied up
But not enough to hide the hideous atrocities
Which break our heart so

we zoom in further..
Deeper...
We see ourselves..
The pain underlying the rage...
see the causes of this pain
The impotence felt as witnesses
The guilt
...at not having acted more..
Always could have done more...
Always reasons for holding back...
The anger..
Pain..
Hurt..
The... WHY!!! WHY!!! WHY???
Echoing thunderously through the mind

Zooming in further..
Further..
Further...
The killer is embracing the murdered...
The murdered... The killer...
Further..
Further...
Finding true essence...
one in all...

And zooming out
Out...
out..
out
Same thing..
Same thing...

we start...
...by seeing others
end with self...

Then beyond

all the same

All the same