We Are Here (Still)

We are here (still)
in this the last outpost
stuck in the dark with
folk believing (still) that
women belong at home

We are here (still)
all 50 or so million
in our seemingly different
and separate country apart
poles from one and all

We are here (still)
we with the native intelligence
of our parents and theirs before
sans the scraps of paper
certifying our daily worth

We are here (still)
in this very colony and that
along with the jobless poor
illiterate and woman too

We are here (still)
you need not do
the bleeding heart liberal
around the lack of skills
and the so-called brain drain

(and this poker-faced
to a community of citizens
a captive audience surely
with a talent or two to share
out here in the protectorate)

We are here (still)
despite it all

The Cape Colonys head madams heart bleeds at a Community Policing Forum meeting; while one of her apparently competent men goes back to his (W)omen belong at home medieval past (Cape Argus, August 12 2009).

DK, 31 Mahogany Road, Beverley Park, Eerste River 7100, 021-6961214 (parents place, Crawford)

- David Kapp, david_kapp@yahoo.com