NIGHTFALL IN SOWETO by Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali

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 

Night fall! Nightfall!

You are my mortal enemy. 

But why were you ever created?

Why can't it be daytime? 

Daytime forever more?