The Bavino Sermons
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About this ebook
Lesego Rampolokeng
Born in Orlando West, Soweto, in Johannesburg, Lesego Rampolokeng is a poet, novelist, playwright, filmmaker and writing teacher who rose to prominence in the 1980s, a turbulent period in South Africa’s history. He is the author of several pioneering collections of poetry including Talking Rain (1993), The Bavino Sermons (1999), Head on Fire (2012) and A Half Century Thing (2015). He is also the author of three novels, two plays, screenplays and has collaborated in performances and recording with several musicians.
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The Bavino Sermons - Lesego Rampolokeng
I
RIDING THE VICTIM TRAIN
Lines for Vincent
they pulled out his teeth
with a pair of pliers before he died
wrenched out his nails
’cos they wanted his manhood denied
they cut off his genitals
with a butcher-knife
while he bled they skinned him
& let the blood flow with the wind
i got the full blow of the message
in the red rage of a storm
whipping hard at the back of my shame
& still the shack of memory rattles its bones
let’s put it in perspective
no one i know saw vincent’s corpse
& the condolences were dry cleaned
by a military-man who lived
for the struggle to be human
yes the man in command made a demand
for his pounds of blood & flesh
we buried an empty coffin to symbolise
they say a jackal carried away his skull
was found choked on the bullet lodged in the brain
legend would have it
they waved his head in the air
& the bones would have made a throne
for the president
they mutilated & sodomised his dead body
vincent was my cousin killed by bravery
& a nation’s homicidal glory
i showed him my first pubic hairs
& in the season of my confusion
he pointed out the path & how to walk it
but took a knock on the shock of mortality’s discovery
on his feet with fog for a blanket
crept thru smog of a cannon’s fartblast
to die in komatipoort
site of the seal on the settlement of deathexcrement
justice took a hit in the killing fields
vincent on a hill of scarlet
with the chill wrapped around him
it was a whirlstorm within
tucked under a blanket of fear
as murder’s recognition grew
& still the wind of torment blew
at night i drown in sweat
with the sight of a death-grin
with a gun aimed at my brains
& they call that figment
of a fevered imagination
& still
i see the made up faces on the news
tremble as i watch them tuck into chicken at luncheon
in limosine whip thru function after
cameraflash function
& want to get their views
on why lives were compromised
but my questions are lobotomised
it’s no use
stirring the grail of revolution
when all it can yield
is a landful of maggots in convulsions
the mother couldn’t stop shaking her head
so they certified her mad
& locked her inside her solitude
the bomb bullet blade poison
or just silence
can ease the itching sore in my mind
as my tongue twitches
i know i might encounter the death
of speech
but it’s said memory is a long road
made worse by the heavy load
of violence
Riding the victim train
I
blight on the site of the death-staple diet
at gunshot midnight
the leper cast out in the desert & cold
without snout or paw in the pot of gold
but warm & sane on the wisdom train
i’m beyond the boer factor in the kaffir sector
if it makes me suffer
rougher i come tougher
break its neck ’cos acting kaffir
is not being black
cry nazi riding tracks of the third reich
they stand back from the battle track
back up the second coming of the groot trek
herd themselves like cattle in the colour kraal
wearing the victim label
everyone a sufferer
pretending there was never a biafra
can’t see ethiopia for myopia
kick up a rat racket
they pick up a rot packet
wearing skin like a wallet
riding a technic of pigment
moving from depth to platitude
selling attitude
each one a racial prostitute
the victims vie for martyrdom
blood is mud we trudge
call on history they reverse the charges
not jud suss but the birth of a nation
brutal equation
the mein kampf syndrome takes hold
my pain is deeper than yours
chained to history’s flaws
from the root of the old
the fruit takes hold in the throat
then they wonder why some feed on the seed
of the dead
II
blight on the site of the death-staple diet
at gunshot midnight
the leper cast out in the desert & cold
without snout or paw in the pot of gold
but warm & sane on the wisdom train
i’m beyond the boer factor in the kaffir sector
if it makes me suffer
rougher i come tougher
break its neck ’cos acting kaffir
is not being black
but shame contained at dawn of conscience’s end
old wounds dusted off shown off
atrocity flags flown high
casualty squad on scar-parade
past afraid made present dread masquerade
achievement charade
relevant rule of the moment
tears dried out at birth
gorgon stoned blind eye devil faith
tears seen own corpses on the morgue slab
dr jekyll’s back in the lab
dreams besieged in withering fright
vampires in blood hot night
unleash blistering storm on tattered flesh
rain of fire wash souls of ash
lives to the stake
a slice of civilisation power cake
bedrock of solomon
dread lock of samson
life’s art strife’s fart
beast to diseased heart
slow painstrain
death-flow-rain
hope in abortion
riding the victim train
A bavino love story at wet sunset
maybe she said i’m impure unclean there are moans & whores
make the most noise or give blows to the head of manhood
he said I come in molten lead striking a gong
when it can no longer claim to be long or strong or even a dong
maybe she guides him into her inner sanctum out of the storm
& he said when I pulled out to the surface I said shit & it was
holding tight when she compressed her sphincter passage
I could neither axe it nor run to the exit
maybe he said open the sluice-gates here comes the juice-flood
she said there’s not a pole here anymore but a mole wriggling
around in the muddy hole & conquer was not an issue
the search was for the toilet tissue ... (wipe away shame’s traces
of aborted explosions when mossy walls of flesh layered purple
folded straightened out to fossilise shrinking shrivelling
in embraces of deep silences awaiting the final affirmation
in the after-mission)
maybe she said this is not right she tried a hold on the cold
in the heat & the night first she said let it be the last
but the genesis revealed her later splaying saying
stay