I will learn to pray for you
I will pray for you
In my anger
I will pray for you
That one day you will keep the promises you made
that day four years ago
When I gave you a cross
and in return you told me things would be different
Then turned around and hurt me
Lied to me
Stole from me
You came into my house and stole my curtains
Exposed my poverty for the world to see
You drank expensive wine
and spilt it on my tattered couch
laughed at me when I told you
I didn’t have ice
because I didn’t have water
or a fridge
And when I gave you my last slice of bread
As if to make fun,
You demanded I serve it with jam on a crystal plate
But I will learn to pray for you
I will tell my heart that next year
things will be different
I will give you my cross again
I will walk barefoot to the tent in the burnt down veld
I will ignore the dilapidated school
or bustling bottle store
I will quell my anger when my feet hurt
from the heat and gravel stones
And I will teach my heart to pray for you
Because that’s what my mother taught me
And that’s what her mother taught her
I just hope that THIS TIME, God is listening.
– End –
Vangile Gantsho,
