"Man / Dela"

By Thomas Sayers Ellis
A part of, a part of love, hates, hates a part of.
A part of, a part of hate, loves, loves a part of.
Loves a part of, a part of the man, the man the state hates.
Hates a part of, a part of the name, the name the people love.
Hates wholeness, hate. Loves togetherness, love,
the togetherness of the large human movement.
Loves togetherness, loves. Hates wholeness, hate,
the wholeness of the small human hyphen.
De Wet, de Klerks. De Klerk, de Wets. Botha.
Moneydeala, your worship makes an island of freedom. 
Detained Harassed Banned.

              The trap,
              the trap, the trap.
              The capture, the capture, the capture.
              The trial, the trial, 
              the trial.

So do we So we to. So do the Cape parts,
a part of, the Dutch parts. Ho wick, Ri vo nia.
She Who Tries her sacred knock, her High Organ of little male Anasi.
Her Eastern Star in his Malta night. Order, a part of.
Breytenback's albino, Gordimer's Beethoven.
A part his, a part hers. The odor of Resistance, Brutus Dennis!
A part invests. Victor, a Verster. A part divests.
All American     Apartheids    pulled South.


                       Dela"
 

Copyright Credit: Thomas Sayers Ellis, "Man / Dela." Copyright © 2015 by Thomas Sayers Ellis. Used by permission of the author for PoetryNow, a partnership between the Poetry Foundation and the WFMT Radio Network.
Source: PoetryNow (PoetryNow, 2015)