Soweto Village

                                             by Brenda Joy Dobson

Soweto Village bakes in a wealth of African sunlight

A gritty, sallow haze hangs above tin-thatch rooftops

Mud-walled cinder-block houses stand on oceans of desert-sand

Mamas work and children play beneath wisps of eucylaptus tree-shade

Bubbling banter and jokes

                       dartle about a burgeoning marketplace

Soon a salmon-sunset softens the dusty squalor of the village

A white-hot sun dips low as day-heat begins to wane

Doors swing open to welcome a taste of evening-air

The Zulu people sing and dance to familiar drum-beats of home

                               as the American music plays

                                on a portable Sylvania radio

Symbolic of a divided-people

                                            in South Africa's divided-land

bjd