(africa Poems) The Beloved Poem by Pheko Motaung

She says the old ways are not for her
She has turned her back on the old gods
In the place of Mdalidephu she worships
The cellphone and the flashy car and money
She will not be seen dead admiring her old
Black and white photographs taken with
The rickety old Kodak camera
She's a bar fly in the city now
Her face is everywhere on the sites of
The social networks
She wants badly to be a celebrity
She e-mail them all world wide she's hungry
For friendship I hear someone warn
FACEBOOK addict and TWITTER slave
She has 'improved' a lot from the dirt covered
Village girl from the kraal of Chief Mahapa
Of Mokgotlong Of Moting Poso Of Ditaolaneng
Behind her back she is ridiculed in the social
Circles and they tell bawdy jokes about
Her escapades at the back seats of other women's
Husband's cars
Back home we pray for her soul
We ask the ancestors to protect her and forgive
Her despite her treachery
And we still write letters to her because
We don't trust the cellphone and the other
Marvels of technology that our children worship
And we urge her to use the same technology
To hit back and avenge her own enslavement
At the hands of technology by using it to
Benefit herself and others in a positive way
But not to let it be her personal god
And wherever you are child of my sister
Don't sell your soul
To the plastic culture of the city where
You see the pretty women laugh
But the smile is professional it lacks the warmth
And the hard eyes clash with the grim smirk
Do be careful with the smooth talkers of the city
The men there are not known for their will
To charm a sweet vulnerable girl like
You for free
Their smile is worse than the iron ore
Grin of the leopard and when they've won your confidence
Who shudders at what they'll do
To you when they surround you at midnight?