A Friend Called Jesus Poem by Stella Sisanda Qishi

I was chained
I was choking
I was chided
In my past
For my past
By my past

I had no idea
Whether I was coming or going
Or whether I was going or coming
For life chewed and spitted pieces of me hither and thither

I looked around
Searching for a pillar,
But the people I thought were my friends
Thought me insane
For thinking they
Would even spare me a thought.
They proved me gullible
For believing I was worthy
Of them thinking of me
In my darkest hour.
And the one person I never thought a friend
Remained behind when all those
I thought would stay had gone.
Ndithetha ngomhlobo ongu Jesu.

He was my guide
When I refused letting go of my past
And, like the Israelites
Reluctant of turning their backs
On their oppressors,
I mourned my yesterday,
Holding on to my murky past for dear life

Fearing the Light that was too bright
For my darkness
To illuminate even the deepest compartments of my past
That no one knew of
Except myself and myself only.

For malum' John had already declared
That darkness, as dark as it may be,
Would never overpower the Light
For the Light was the Word
And the Word was the giver of life.

So I surrendered to the Word,
Murky past and all.
I was brittle
I was battered
I was broken
And I expected nothing less than rejection
Just like the people
I thought were my friends did
Who had drugged me with lies,
Pretence, deceit and betrayal
And in the end rejected me,
But to my surprise
He remoulded me
He remodeled me
He rewired me
And all the while never leaving my side.
I'm talking about a friend called Jesus.