A pregnant pause (I had)

David Kapp, Belthorn Estate

A pregnant pause (I had)

down Thornton Road

on the way

to my parents’ place

On the way

past a memorial

to an event

we care to remember

when reminded

On the way

past the scene of

our own Trojan Horse

our own Greek Tragedy

for the three young victims

of our recent past

A pregnant pause then

for all our tragedies past

and present, too

A pregnant pause then

for all those days

we remember

Not forgetting those days

we religiously turn

the other cheek to

(remember Biko and Sobukwe)

Days that don’t fit

our political ideology

of forgetting how

we got here

(and why)

(And then we blame

our youth for a lack

of remembering)

A pregnant pause then

for all those days

we care to not remember

Pausing, pregnantly, past the Trojan Horse Memorial outside the former Hewat College in Thornton Road, the early evening of 20 June 2007. I have, too, paused, pregnantly, at the memorial over the road from the Athlone Magistrate’s Court.

And you?