[DEBATE] : (Fwd) Tribute to Dennis Brutus, CCS Visiting Scholar

[Patrick Bond]

(Dennis is a speaker today at the Gandhi Satyagraha commemmoration at 
Durban Institute of Technology, and no doubt will then dash to the 
airport for a flight to Singapore to fight neoliberalism. Vonani has 
done a wonderful service capturing our bard of social justice now, in 
his prime.)


dennis on the march
Vonani Bila

goatee-bearded pilgrim
in thick rimmed glasses
unbent driftwoodleaf bard
you say with impassioned breath
work while the light lasts
the sun is shining
the moon so sprightly bright
in neat jacket
t-shirt & suitcase
you soar
from cities of gems
to villages of cow-dung
unscathed by genocides
& tornados
warrior spirit
you traverse
across burning mountains
& the tumultuous atlantic
braving typhoons & tsunamis
wordsmith with a simple lust
for freedom
you fly far & wide
braving earthquakes
& volcanoes
ready to twirl & turn
in storms of tyranny
here you come
old young man
with fire
to blow
the cowed contractors
of global greed
here you come
old young man
with such undimmed light
& untamed fervor
let grabbers of wealth
open their ears
& hear the truth
let them learn
to listen sufficiently
to people
in tin shacks

maker of revolution
with a stubborn hope
for a better tomorrow
fire glows in your eyes
in the streets of joburg
in broad daylight
the green flies
stuck a bullet in your back
they wanted you dead
yet you carried the bullet
& galloped into exile
even today
at the age of eighty
you still march
in the streets of joburg
feet firm on the ground
though in the smothering sun
of squeezed dreams
you march
with the hungry patriots
whose harvest of freedom
is but dust
red flags fly
up high in the sky
not against the draconian pass laws
or botha’s total strategy
but you drum stern words
into your former comrades’ blacked ears
those comrades you broke quarry with
in robben island
those gucci socialists
with treacherous sickness
those who now disown their people
ravaged by throbbing pain
those potbellied men & women
abandoned by people’s vision
to chart the path of the freedom charter
you march
with the angry masses
calling on people of the world
to smash the world bank of beasts
you march
in streets & squares
raising a clenched fist
demanding the paris club
& london club
to cancel the debt

unbent revolutionary
you know the underclass
in factories
can’t eat gear promises.
the underclass
in gutted townships
won’t breathe nepad hollow air
radical with a young heart
you march
between murky alex shacks
hand over people’s cries
to sandton of villains, pirates & suckers
blended voices
of the working class
sing in unison
radical with a young heart
though mandela is free
rivers of typhoid
& cholera flow freely
& consume the poors of the world
blade-sharp revolutionary
you march
alongside the landless peasants
the evicted & the unemployed
you march
alongside the students
& the hiv-positive
you march
alongside the harangued retrenched workers
& climb over hills of working class tribulations
ask why in the periphery of cities
of the new south africa
filthy shack tin-roofed camps grow
along modern throughways
& drifting highways


teacher of the people
brewer of raw music
fire glows in your eyes
in leuwkop dungeon
apartheiders kept you behind bars
interrogating & torturing you
in the small hours of the clock
they wanted you numb & still
& they failed
you survived steel hands & fists
march on
without tremor comrade brutus
in durban
porto alegre
seatle
in genoa
prague
quebec
in cochabamba
bamako
nairobi
far & wide
in distant skies
dutifully handing out
press cuttings & leaflets
for not even the police armed with dogs
can stop you
from addressing the media

comrade dennis
forever in the battlefield
against the obscenities
of bush & blair
dennis on the march
shouting
free mumia abu jamal
who waits without tremor
nor fear on death row
dennis on the march
shouting viva hector peterson
commemorating the fighting spirit
of june 1976 children
spirited young lions
who fought
the enemy
with fire, stones, dance & poetry
causing all shriek
in apartheid junta’s spine
dennis on the march
reminding us that without robust debate
democracy belongs to the dogs
even mandela the freedom fighter
must be questioned
dennis on the march
digesting spender, donne
langston, pound
in pleasure
dennis on the march
languid leaves fall
the wind howls
the sun & light
brush your face swiftly
dennis on the march
forever reminding aspirant poets
how to write poems with brevity
how to jam & not just slam
knowing to be human is to be creative
& to be creative is to be human
dennis on the march
telling us the world is filled
with soundless weeping
man with stubborn hope
at eighty
courageous & strong
i salute you
the struggle against tyranny
is worth living for
your unequivocal love for life
is deep beneath your skin
& every molecule
of your body