WHITE CITY JABAVU by Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali

I don't see

anything white

in this White City 

just the blackness

of widows' garments 

of mourning.

May be the only

whiteness is 

of a waif's teeth that chatter 

in the hungry mouth.

Or the

white eye-ball

of a plundered corpse, 

lying in the gutter.

Around me 

is the gloomy

street corner

where dark figures

dart to deal 

a deadly blow

on passersby.

I hear

women scream

in sorrow and despair 

drying the gay rivers 

of carousers.

I stop

to ponder

but what is white 

in White City Jabavu?

White City Jabavu: one of the suburbs of Soweto