Road to Keiskammahoek

a pink sky suddenly

asked the blue keiskammahoek

mountain

reasons for living

and lasting

so long

a whiff of fern

air exploded in stranger

vicinity

somebody laughed

children

chased a dipping sun

Poem and Watercolor by Amitabh Mitra

Mdantsane Breathing - Celebrating Mdantsane

Mdantsane Breathing is my latest book, a coffee table hard cover lavishly illustrated poetry book which is first of its kind describing in poetry and watercolors the vibrant culture of Mdantsane which is the second biggest township after Soweto.
The world knew about the Soweto Uprising, the Sowetan Poets and Winnie Mandela who still lives there.
The popular news paper The Sowetan remains a mark of courage during the apartheid times and after.
But nobody wrote about Mdantsane and its heroic participation against the apartheid government.
This book brings to you for the first time of a strange life that insists to be told and that persists within all of us who were witness of those struggle days.
A poem and water color of Siviwe is on the jacket flap of this book
Siviwe is a former soldier of Umkhonto We Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress.
The book is dedicated to the brave people of Mdantsane.

Wikipedia -About Mdantsane


Mdantsane Breathing
Publisher - Poets Printery, South Africa
ISBN - 978-0-620-46040-8
Price - Rand 760 including postage

Waiting for taxi

waiting for a taxi
going to town
a sun drenched afternoon
picks up the green instead
distant clouds remain aloof
share this spectacle
in suburban
mdantsane.

Poem and Watercolor by Amitabh Mitra

Siviwe, Poems of Mdantsane

so much has changed
there is no longer the bush war nor
the beatings
siviwe only remembers a sky that staged
a sudden coup
on his dreams and disparity
the sky
the sun
and the overgrown road looks different now
he thinks of the stars
what was once promised to him
his proud khakis still in his shack
tries to stop
a bleeding
river.

Drawing and Poem by Amitabh Mitra

Tembeka

a rustic sun
in stealth
catches
tembeka
through stained glass windows
droplets of green
turns
day
into deeper shades
of a lingering smile.

Poem and Drawing by Amitabh Mitra

Where is Mdantsane

where does mdantsane starts
where does mdantsane ends
i do not know
ask its people
its many streets
its sky
and its birds
they all end up in a close alley
in closed rivers
of closed dreams
sometimes a light flickers
somewhere
only for a moment
when children laugh
at nothingness
its echo looks for
another mdantsane.

Poem and Drawing by Amitabh Mitra

Mdantsane Rain

a child smiles
laughter runs amid narrow streets
takes a turn
and runs amok with grey
sodden clouds
and then it rains in mdantsane
heavy downpour
weeping
all its miseries in one go
leaking into shacks and homes
a drenched sun waits
clouds take their own time
to go home.

Poem and Drawing by Amitabh Mitra

Cecilia Makiwane Hospital, Mdantsane

the road to cecilia makiwane hospital
is subtle to an extent
the dead treads softly here
not to awaken the shadows
living in the confluence of dread
and disparity
the sky occasionally moves down
and it is then the trees leap to search
the forgotten
driving down to cecilia makiwane hospital
mdantsane
daily
breathing the electric poles
shedding light
relief is perhaps a
sparse
word.

Poem and Drawing by Amitabh Mitra

Mdantsane Thoughts

a strange river snaked within mdantsane
shaking the sky of remembrances
black rain tinged with blood made cesspools
hunger is an imagination
smirking at doors and lost streets
tapping at windows long closed
i had thought of you and the river
and our parting forsaking another innocence
an orange moulds the mdantsane sky
thoughts of yet another day.

Poem and Drawing by Amitabh Mitra

Mdantsane Spaza

the somali spaza shop at street corner
mdantsane
beckons
the needy
cramped within
it too waits for
a stray bullet
or a
stab
violence is islamic
in distant african shores
death
has no color
here
in peaceful
mdantsane
only the muezzins strange strain
sets a few birds
to flight.

Poem and Drawing by Amitabh Mitra

Mdantsane Orange

within an evening
mdantsane grooves in the orange
sky and earth
homes take an orange blur
siya takes a short cut
with his bag of oranges
knowing
behind this parchment
of orange and yellow
lies a drought of the unspoken
a jaundiced eye
watches only a
painful distance.


Poem and Drawing by Amitabh Mitra

Viva

viva
surges in throbbing pulse
beating drums of another war

viva
hiding a million dreams
tearing a million dreams

viva
the colour of a sky blanched
protesting a rainbow promise

viva
a country runs on fasting streets
on the silence of old shadows

viva
the child shackled in the emerging sun
tries to smile and laugh.

Poem and Drawing on a hand made paper by Amitabh Mitra

Mdantsane Taxi Rank

highway taxi rank in mdantsane
wakes up to a dust smeared morning
in a cacophony of smog and stridor
people travel their dreams
and hopes
on a brittle movement
across earthenware horizons
and then
she sees him
everyday
eyes
startle
a taxi evades
the glimmer of a
joyous
day


Poem and Drawing by Amitabh Mitra

Carnival Nights

an evening creaks in
touching shadows with a tinge
of smile
a slow release laughter
aloe and wild grass shake to
jazz moments
tiredness breaks its shackles
ran the curves of a distant sun
words lost its way home
as usual
a poem unwound itself
from an angle of your eye
mdantsane bursts itself in a mayhem
of another carnival night.

Poem and Drawing by Amitabh Mitra

Mdantsane Children

mdantsane children take to the streets
happiness is as hungry
a barren sky chides of dreams
the sun looks down
guilty
till
proved
dishevelled laughter
rules.


Poem and Drawing by Amitabh Mitra

Mdantsane Nights

lulama hurries home
mdantsane enters a war zone
an evening creeping into a shelter
of spoken shadows
a dying night screams somewhere
the last breath snatched without pity
happiness now brims in the slaughter
of the unforgotten.


Poem and Drawing by Amitabh Mitra