My wonderful life

I love my wonderful life My neighbours were my great grandparents’ neighbours My teacher taught my mother and I married the boy next door I’m proudly South African , I voted in ‘94 Standing next to an old black woman Whose toothless smile pulled at my heart strings And spoke English better than I do, Didn’t daddy tell me they were backward and untrained Just wish I knew another way to say hi Maybe I’d laugh more often Just like Sophie and John from my servants quarters But it’s even safer knowing what I know And nothing and no one beyond I’ve heard blacks have rhythm And coloureds know how to jol But I’ll never know ‘Cause my walls are too high And I can’t see my neighbour I’ve never tasted Indian curry For that will be betraying my culture But I’m okay…white is all I know And so far it’s okay My daughter speaks 3 languages She tells me Sipho means gift And asks me what her name means She tells me Quinton is the class genius And gives her butterflies in the tummy Sleeping with the enemy ,huh? What’s this world coming to? “Stick with your own kind”I tell her“Don’t trust them”I say As I make a mental note ,to ask Sophie what her real name is And wonder what it’d be like, if I went over and met my neighbour Maybe..someday…