Unbalanced Equation Poem by Tebogo Angela Poen

Who started it?
They, they started it.
That's the very T'golintical, theoretical explanation
I always give for my so called evil actions
To support my argument, i've got Newton's third law of motion
For every action, there's an equal but opposite reaction

Therefore
An eye for an eye
It makes perfect sense to apply
Doing the opposite is just living a lie

I'm just being realistic
There's no justice served in this world for turning the other cheek
Unless your emotions are too weak
Or religion got you too meek

To this day I still use the theory to take care or solve some of the life's matters
As we all know, what you do on the right hand side
You must also do on the left hand side
That's the equation rule we given
The mathematical and scientifical methods we made to belie'ven
To add on that, we told of how we need maths and science to survive
So how does applying these rules to a life's situation make one a rebel?
Or perhaps the law of language left us with this problematic definition to solve?

See, thing is, the role of a hypocrite doesn't last long
To live a truthful life freely, your soul verily longs
This is how we at some point get to die... for what we believe in
So if you still feel robbed by the system
You surely should know what it means to strive for justice

By justice in this case I mean revenge
Which some of you believe to be evil
But no! it is to make things even
To balance the equation
We need that I this world we living in

For now let us bare in mind that we are the living museums
Let the future generations who will come to learn and explore
Discover the truth, courage, wisdom from us
We owe it to ourselves

The only evil thing I know is hypocrisy
Or perhaps we still enslaved
Left to fantasize about this freedom of speech
Is that why the whole truth you can't preach?
The system told you to suck it up
Is it the judgement you scared of before the judgement day they told us about

Whoa...! Wait! Rewind
Who started it?

You know how funny it is to hear the oppressors calling the slaves savages?
But hey, we agree to everything they say about us
Having learnt racism, tribalism, colonialism, capitalism
and every other-'sm' words they introduced to our innocent souls that you can think of

But we keep smiling to the oppressors
We worship the oppressors
We bow
We buy into all they say about us
They're still our masters and we're still enslaved
With this freedom of speech we given
We can't even voice out our thoughts and feelings
Told by the TRC to reconcile
To let the sleeping dogs lie
But are they really sleeping?
Or just ignoring the realities of life?

See the past can't be the past if it keeps coming back,
Visiting the future
And we can't be waiting so long on the rapture
The experience of colonialism was a black man's lecture
So how about you return a favour
To your tutors

I'm talking to you black girl like me
Who sometimes feels good for nothing
To every black child who is still hustling on the streets at night
Cause economy never loved us
And for that reason we have our fellow blacks who are scared to walk in the ghetto streets at night
Scared of their own kind
To every black child who feels separated from their own kind in the name of language and accent
Every parent who feels separated from their own children
In the name of African culture against religion
To those who are ashamed to speak their home language in Jozi
Because of the discrimination against by their fellows
And so tribalism multiplies
To every African who don't feel safe in this make-belief African country
Those who need to be carrying their passports to prove their identity
Not forgetting those who bleach their skin to be so called beautiful and civil

What have they turned us into
In the name of gold?
The tears and blood shed
How we went from walking on top of gold
to having all our riches sold
Believing in every lie we're told
As they close their car Windows to every beggar on the streets
Leaving them cold
Our kids be getting arrested for breaking into stores, trying to retrieve their world.

This used to be the land of milk and honey
Today it is us with the exoskeleton, ribcage exposed,
We are hungry
It used to be the land of peace and harmony
Today we cry rape, robbery, murders
We are dying

Well.. Newton'third law of motion still states,
For every action, there's an equal but opposite reaction
For that, let me underline the word equal for you
Remember the right to equality

But just to be on the safe side of the law
I shall let these dogs pretending to be sleeping lie
One thing I know, things are not yet even
The equation is still unbalanced
But who am I to say anything?
Just another bitter victim,
Trying to turn you against the light
Maybe!