"Cape Town"
Vaneshran Arumugam
Your street remembers me like a vein, full of lifeblood- I'm a fighting corpuscle...for you
You have pumped like this for centuries of lives,
Watching us come and leave your bountiful table
Through all our various shades and trades
Sprawling at your feet
Spilling our needs deep into this land.
Your stone remembers me like a house hewn from all that is precious - I am the finest grain of shiny sand polishing my path through your corridors of possibility
Where you've seen history unfold its leaves in terrible directions.
Your waves remember me like a name-giving first bath - I am a magic spell of words...for you
For you are the mother that wakes before all of us
Guiding our dreams to the morning sun calling the changes to the tunes we play
To the rhythm you lay down
Reassuringly, unswervingly
I remember you're the mountain
I remember you're the gold-drenched shore
I remember you're the avenues, the trees
The sum of everything yet to be
Begins with you
I remember you are all our mother
Our mother after all.
Copyright©2013 by Vaneshran Arumugam