Going To Canaan Poem by Daleen Enslinstrydom

In the dark of the night
the shame is veiled
and pain cuts through her
like her like a scorching knife
and she pulls the blanket over her
to keep out the winter chill.

She stands alone at the fire
and her mind is made up.
The fog hangs low around her
and she cannot see a thing through it.

A shiver runs down her spine
and she needs to get away from this place
for her and her child’s sake.

She cannot sustain a life here
and it’s as if God has forsaken her.
No prayer has been answered
and the land around her
has become a barren mother
and violence has grown to gigantic proportions
consuming everything
and life has got no meaning.

She bends down
and picks up the sleeping child.
Hope lies a thousand kilometer away
and crossing the savannahs of Africa
she hopes to enter the Promised Land.

When the shotgun fires
her body stretches out
and she sees Jordan in the distance
covering her lifeless child
and she does not notice the heat
of the rising sun covering her face.