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"Nightfall in Soweto" by Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali i(1988)
1. Nightfall comes like
a dreaded disease
seeping through the pores
of a healthy body
and ravaging it beyond repair.
2. A murderer's hand,
lurking in the shadows,
clasping the dagger,
strikes down the helpless victim.
3. 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.
4. Man has ceased to be man
Man has become beast
Man has become prey.
5. 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.
6. Where is my refuge?
Where am I safe?
Not in my matchbox house
Where I barricade myself against nightfall.
7. 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.
8. Nightfall! Nightfall!
You are my motal enemy.
But why were you ever created?
Why cant it be daytime?
Daytime forever more?