Page 35 - LockDown Poetry 2020

-------- lockdown poetry --------

I don’t think they can hear me

Nelly Mathebula

I am voiceless, senseless,

Proven to have existed with a social trace,

And yet distanced, chained and locked;

With my dignity. I don’t think they can hear me.

I am a human, with a right to humanity,

Yet I am hurled to humanity,

With no reason to prevail any harm.

Please try to understand that to lock down,

Is to calm down, they say;

I don’t think they can hear me.

I keep watch of the streets like a pole,

Caged into my house like a prisoner,

Distanced from my life like literally,

Sanitized to sanity like a bug,

My faced is toned into a tricky threat,

Am I locked down to my own self??

Still, I don’t think they can hear me.

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