Lugubrious Interpretation [revised] Poem by Margaret Alice Second

Due Restitution [REV.]

Instead of asking why they leave the Dutch Reformed
Church in droves, the question should be why doesn’t
the Church lie down, shrink into shame or die - in that
day & age condoning apartheid politics as well as it’s
inspiration is an abomination - biblically interpreting
self-fabricated gods who can’t survive such atrocities

In Pretoria the Church smugly held Synod after Synod,
a city where Africans were not allowed on sidewalks;
shame of an ugly past can’t be removed - at least let’s
start by changing the name to Tshwane - Africans not
allowed to buy and own a house anywhere, needing a
pass to prove some white person vouched for them

Gave them job and a room - & diminished education:
preparing whole generations for slavery in their own
land - church’s guilt from doing nothing more than
protesting - except an NG church of damned that led
the oppression and thinks a weak apology makes up
for the sins of the past - madness, nothing can make

Due restitution for watching people suppressed until
they’re crushed by regulations; 100 whites only from
the Congress of Democrats (COD) went to Kliptown
for the Freedom Charter, the rest were going to Hell


[ORIGINAL:

Lugubrious Interpretation

Instead of asking why members leave Dutch Reformed Church
the question is why doesn’t the church close its doors and
shrink in shame, not only condoning crime of apartheid but
inspiring it - it’s an abomination, no self-fabricated god
based on a lugubrious interpretation of the Bible can
survive these atrocities

The church smugly held Synod after Synod in Pretoria – the
city where Africans were not allowed on sidewalks, the ugly
shame of the past cannot be removed - at least let’s change
the city’s name to Tshwane; Africans not allowed to own a
house any-where, a pass to prove some white person vouched
for them providing a job and a room –

Diminished education, preparing children for slavery in
their own country, churches guilty of doing nothing, only
protesting – except the NG church of the damned which led
the oppression and thinks a weak apology makes up for the
sins of the past – madness, nothing can make restitution
for watching the people getting crushed by
laws and regulations

Only a 100 white people, the Congress of Democrats,
went to Kliptown for the Freedom Charter, the rest
were going to hell


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Do you know what the church’s atmosphere was like – now
they try to make up by getting sexy ladies in tight-fitting
woollen dresses to throw up their hands and sing hallelujah
with closed eyes while all the men – and I – gawk and think
of other things:
[These words also describe how I felt in my youth: ]

mournful, gloomy, sad, unhappy, doleful, Eeyorish, glum,
melancholy, melancholic, woeful, miserable, woebegone,
forlorn, despondent, dejected, depressed, solemn, serious,
long-faced, sombre, sorrowful, morose, dour, mirthless,
cheerless, joyless, wretched, dismal, grim, saturnine,
totally pessimistic…

[16 January 2014]