Writer, poet, performer and teacher, Robyn Radcliffe in her observance of the young male from this population group deemed to be Coloured, captures the essence of what our young soon-to-be-men who are her brothers, your cousins, my sons, our future, have to struggle with.
In a world where we as adults argue and grapple with our group identity, they have to still find their identities as individuals.
The Warrior Who Would Never Be
by Robyn Jill Radcliffe
He sits in a stoic school-desk, the holding-cell of his conditioned behaviour
Feigning bright-eyed interest, a ruse formed from a carefully constructed veneer
Adolescent angst at logger-heads with awkward limbs hanging in slack derision
He shifts his angular frame, bound and confined to this "educational" prison
The dreary tones of an uninspiring teacher leave him at liberty to pursue his escape
Day-dreams littered with graphic desires safely hidden in his mind's eye take shape
Images of not so boyish fantasies flirt with the emergence of a soon to be man-hood
Clarity couples with confusion, creating the off-spring of being wholly misunderstood
Traces of a fuzzy upper lip and broken voiced tenor reveal his rapid ascension
Over-driven spurts of the hormonal, a pronounced Adams Apple, now bobbing with masculine tension
A question is posed, idling thoughts are disposed, he displays the extent of his cognisance
The yearning of unworded wanting - never disclosed, he'll remain at a distance
He ponders the possibility of joining a gang, a dual feeling of fear infused frisson
The pressure is potent, without full awareness, he's already made a life-changing decision
Such succulent prey to the vultures who'll swoop in recognition of vulnerable, palpable longing
Street-corners beckon like sweet curls of dagga smoke, danger subdued by a mis-placed sense of belonging
His African brothers partake in their ancestral rituals of coming-of-age preparations
Ancient mysteries are fathomed amidst forest-cloaked bodies in tests of endurance during initiations
As piccanins, deeply instilled was a knowing - like an incision made before circumcision
What naturally followed, the progression of culture made tangible, like the flap of former foreskin
He goes back to childhood stories of the gods who fought battles in the days of Achilles and Thor
Of swash-buckling tales of clashing swords, where honour was upheld and ideals adored
Knights of the Round Table, King Arthur, were heroes whose memorable fights were revered
Their adventures enrobed with clear purpose and thus, the course of their path justly steered
Now, as unplaced rage wrestles with apathy, due to the proving he seeks of his manhood
He'll slip through the cracks of his stoic school-desk, silently, as another thug of his neighbourhood
And as he grows into his angular frame,fills out sinewy muscle chorded strength
Fuzzy lip will turn into a shadowy stubble, as trouble follows his journey at length
Young men need a reason for being - before warriors can be made from their beings.
Bruinou.com asked Robyn to send us some more of her poetry but after a long conversation we agreed that she has a lot more to say about the human condition and some every-day things all people go through, so we will certainly not be confiining her to only poetry.