To Grizelda Grootboom
I heard your words…
Harrowing.
Your life .. tortured… cruel.
An eight year child…
gang-raped by boys… blood stained.
In your shack poor home…
Your mother blamed you in despair… beat you.
You ran away .
Cape Town.,,,, the underbelly is a fetid place,
repulsive, bestial ….
did not shelter, protect you.
Or the Children of the Street..
Raped…bought and sold….
You learned to beg and steal to eat.
Each day another odious stroke,
for too many years,
The worst of pimps…and men.
Of women who looking on
without a care for female suffering.
I am an atheist…
but that you turned to God
and Jesus in the end for happiness…
I understand. You needed to transcend
all earthliness…as music does…
and your deep voice raised up in song
took you closer to Paradise.
Sept. 2018