Adorn Keketso

Adorn Keketso Poems

Adorn Keketso Biography

Adorn Keketso Mashigo is a poet, a student-cum-mentor studying International Communication and a contributing freelance journalist. Keketso’s poetry journey began at the early age of 15 after meeting up with an intellectual dedicated rapper (Macdonald Lekhuleni) who encouraged him to use poetry as a medium to express himself and communicate/convey decisive message(s) to the world through word-power. He recalls very precisely what Macdonald once said, “before the world it was the word and the word was with God, today the word is with the poet”, he reiterated I write more often to grow in the poetic sphere before he could take my work to Goodenough Mashego (a renowned poet) for review and criticism, in mashego I discovered s gem, a poet who manipulates the poetic language like he was born with a poetic drum palpitating in his heart only to be translated into words, Mashego further encouraged my writing by suggesting I read more than I write, “read read read and read, books are the source of knowledge and poets are the tongues of the silent minority”, he said. He fed me books and the first book I ever enjoyed amongst the many he gave me was 'Young Blood', by Sifiso Mzobe. He fed me books such as Frantz Fanon (Black Skin, White Mask) , Aziz Hassim (The Lotus People) the imposter by Damon galgut and many more others. I still refer to people like Vonani Bila, Matete Motsoaledi, Moses Seletisha, Goodenough Mashego, Rumi, Oscarine Humanity, David Maahlamela, Dennis Brutus, Nadine Gordimer, and Macdonald Masta H Lekhuleni among others as the people who shaped my poetry and still shape poetry. I write poetry because that’s the obsession I am the closest to, I write what I like, In the spirit of Steven Bantu Biko I write poetry!)

The Best Poem Of Adorn Keketso

What Do You Say

What do you say
to your sister
who just got raped
Do you hug her
pull a sad smile
and whisper deep
in her ravished soul
'everything will be fine'
how do you look her in the eyes
Do you order her to open her thighs
so you scrutinize the penetration
and tell her she's not dirty
Even though you know
society will perceive her otherwise!

What do you say
to your sister
who got raped
while on her way to fetch a bucket of water
for you to wake up 5am
and take a bath
to walk ten kilometres to school
As a teen
do you squeak a hue and cry
loudly curse
break glasses
or do you give her a glass of whisky to solace her soul

What do you say
to a sister who got raped
do you take a picture of her
to show her she's still beautiful
Look her cleavage and declare is still attractive
do you squeeze the tip of her fingers
to absorb her pains
cook her a warm meal
to show you understand
tell me what do you say
to revive back to life the butchered soul of your sister
Do you keep it a secret
pretend everything is Ok
and let her die slowly from the inside
while smiling from the outside
What do you say?

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