How Can We Dance (by Winston Mohapi)

How can we dance when it rains so hard that
the rivers flood and our houses wash away,
When flocks are logs carried to the waterfall,
Can we still dance with all this upon us.

How can we dance when the child starves
and a mongrel steals his bone from his mouth,
When the stomach is distended like a dome,
Can we still dance when graves swallow infants.

How can we dance with so much ignorance
when foolishness is good and goodness is bad,
When reason is lost and ignorance is praised,
Can we still dance as sheep following to a precipice.

How can we dance when the sun sadly sets,
and darkness advances with unchecked speed,
When creeping wolves catch sleepy sheep,
Can we still dance when we can’t see ahead.

How can we dance when no master leads
but walks behind with view obscured, looking
aside yet not seeing to find any way ahead,
Can we still dance when we lead the leader.

How can we dance when we stay in one place;
dancing all day and night long without moving,
as clouds burst and storms destroy houses,
How can we dance when going nowhere fast.

[REVISED 2015/01/23]

2015/01/22
Mohapi TWD

[My colleague Winston Mohapi is a published South
African author and poet and his poem touched me
deeply so I asked his permission to publish it here.]