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Of Course
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equals yes
no one disputes the meaning of words that shift COURSE so that now course equals direction like the course of exploding BOMBS PLANTED IN PUBLIC PLACES to be later studied in a university COURSE
by students and professors tilting screens and heads to see the angle of penetration, explosion, chaos as BOMBS graze INNOCENT CITIZENS
devour life like cattle feeding on PLANTED grass, dew dripping from thin lips.
OF COURSE, everyone knows this word is solid. It’s a word that confirms what’s taken
for granted when
Of course, bombs were planted in public places and innocent citizens were killed, injured, and maimed.
OF COURSE, when action makes sense, you cannot be shocked by what is obvious because
Of course, innocent citizens were also victims of bona fide operations by the South African Defence Force.
OF COURSE, language is curious and curated
to mean and mystify, which is to say: distance, OF COURSE.
Distance PLANTED via passive voice PLANTS PLACES large enough to separate the actor from the action [were planted]
to PLANT a picture that lacks hands, hides the white fingers like how black is hidden in CITIZENS.
There’s no black in INNOCENT. You know that OF COURSE.
INNOCENT is fragile in the mouth. Makes the tongue collect at the front of the incisors, held back by clamped jaws. There’s a sizzle
where BOMB shrapnel cooks pieces of flesh like meat sizzling on a grill, blood morphing from red to brown, to a perfect steak with marks of grand grotesque.
Better present CITIZENS as numbered
INNOCENT VICTIMS but don’t mention children, no race.
Group all by INCIDENTS tabulated into numbers (September 1984 - April 1992):
UNREST RELATED INCIDENTS 80,507
PERSONS INJURED DURING UNREST RELATED INCIDENTS 18,061
PERSONS KILLED DURING UNREST RELATED INCIDENTS 9,280
Ofcourse,bombswereplantedinpublicplacesandinnocentcitizenswerekilled,
injuredandmaimed.Of course,innocentcitizenswerealsovictimsofbonafide
operationsbytheSouthAfricanDefenceForce.
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Lindani Mbunyuza-Memani is an English teacher and student. She recently discovered documentary poetry and loves the genre. Lindani writes to heal herself.
