For the victims of the 2022 and 2023 floods in South Africa
Our mother, she cries, with unceasing tears
She sobs for hours, for days, for weeks
We hear the thundering beat of her broken heart
As she fills the oceans and rivers and dams
Without restraint
Until the waterbanks burst
She unleashes her fury
As waves and currents come crashing
“GONE,” she says
As she tears down villages
With one sweep of her mighty hand
“GONE be these creations of man!”
Ripped from her belly, ripped from her core
In the name of fashion and civilization
“You have forgotten your place,
Forgotten yourselves!
You have left your mother for dead!”
And so our gentle mother rages
From KwaZulu to iKapa
We die year after year
Blessed be our martyrs
In the name of vanity
In the name of progress
© 2023 Marieke de Koker
Image: South Africa 2022 © Sandile Ndlovu/MSF (Doctors Without Borders)
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