Nightfall in Soweto by Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali

Nightfall in Soweto by Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali

Photo from: Onestep 4ward



Nightfall comes like
a dreaded disease
seeping through the pores
of a healthy body
and ravaging it beyond repair



A murderer’s hand,
lurking in the shadows,
clasping the dagger,
strikes down the helpless victim.




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.



Man has ceased to be man
Man has become beast
Man has become prey.



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.



Where is my refuge?
Where am I safe?
Not in my matchbox house
Where I barricade myself against nightfall.



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.



Nightfall! Nightfall!
You are my mortal enemy.
But why were you ever created?
Why can’t it be daytime?
Daytime forever more?

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