"How do you document real life
When real life is getting more
Like fiction each day'
-From Rent the musical
We watched them bob and weave
The shadows dance beneath the door
The car doors slam and the driveway heave
The silence carrying whimpers of "no more".
We heard every bone crack
The thudding of a body on the ground
The persistence of attack
The defenceless body making no sound.
We smelled the stench of her blood
The wreak of a night of terror
The under-carpet dragging of mud
The aftermath of our own earth's tremor.
We felt the pressing of escaping liquid
The running warm wet down our thighs
The shaking bodies small and morbid
The pressure of air breathed only in sighs.
We tasted the morning after
The breakfast in bed on a rattling tray
I'm sorry I'm sorry rather
Than a life of playing broken family- stay?
-Tshepang Molisana
