Oswald Mbuyiseni Mitshali (Nightfall In Soweta) Poem by African Poetry

Oswald Mbuyiseni Mitshali (Nightfall In Soweta)

Rating: 4.0


Nightfall comes like
a dreaded disease
seeping through the pores
of a healthy body
and ravaging it beyond repair

A murderer’s hand,
lurking in the shadows,
clasping the dagger,
strikes down the helpless victim.

I am the victim.
I am slaughtered
every night in the streets.
I am cornered by the fear
gnawing at my timid heart;
in my helplessness I languish.

Man has ceased to be man
Man has become beast
Man has become prey.

I am the prey;
I am the quarry to be run down
by the marauding beast
let loose by cruel nightfall
from his cage of death.

Where is my refuge?
Where am I safe?
Not in my matchbox house
Where I barricade myself against nightfall.

I tremble at his crunching footsteps,
I quake at his deafening knock at the door.
“Open up! ” he barks like a rabid dog
thirsty for my blood.

Nightfall! Nightfall!
You are my mortal enemy.
But why were you ever created?
Why can’t it be daytime?
Daytime forever more?

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
GeneArt 21 October 2018

The poem was about the south african apartheid regime

1 0 Reply

Nice poem. I gather this is about the fear of going out at night in Soweto.

0 3 Reply
Babatunde Aremu 14 November 2013

A harrowing experience at the hand of mankind. Man's inhumanity par excellence turning nature a fearful thing. Africa, oh! Africa

0 2 Reply
READ THIS POEM IN OTHER LANGUAGES
Close
Error Success