From the Hills of Gabane

Image taken from Reeca Travel

It breathes and flows
Down to the belly
Of our city Gaborone.

The Segoditshane River
Has neither fortune nor fame,
Its riverbed is made dead

With urban waste and decay.
It rests in peace
And remains a getaway

For crooks and thieves
Whose den is in the green.
Had Government intervened,

There’d be more attraction
In the river, and not a sensation
On headlines: ‘Segoditshane is flooding.’

The river rampages and roars:
‘Beware: I am the Segoditshane River
A bane to all, crooked and straight.’

Let’s sing a song of sewage,
While we wait for the state
To save our garden city from

Wasted water on the streets.

First published in The Kalahari Review