Why should I write an English poem,
When the English write their own?
Why should I seek the symbol's hope,
When I've never met the pope?
Why would I want or wear;
silks and satins? cottons tear!
why would I want to speak
words unheard over devil's peak?
Seventeen eighty-nine
when victory was mine,
I let them stay
Near mossel bay
So they could win
when I grew thin
Alright, alright that was long ago...
But time remembers, don't you know?
I don't, and so I ask:
Why would I take the task?
Why would I break tradition,
when It's been conditioned?
When wood made winter warm;
and made good shelter in the storm.
With paper piles and Parker pen,
dare I pluck feathers from my hen?
Go write your precious lies on stone, see if I care!
Just leave to nature what was there.
O yes! why would I write indeed,
What my grandmother would not read?
Nkululeko Mdudu
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/why-should-i-write/
