Fields Of Litter : A take on New Brighton
During my stay in Grahamstown - Rhodes University, I made my way down to New Brighton with poet and writer Sandile Ngidi to interview Mxolisi Nyezwa on his exquisite book of poems Song Trails, published in 2000. The interview would feature on The Creative Process - a website and moving exhibition curated by Mia Funk. But my drive down from a small town of colonial infrastructure, past the shrubbery and pastoral landscapes, to the modulations of informal settlements in New Brighton, sparked a range of emotions which compelled me to write: Fields of Litter.
FIELDS OF LITTER
We drove past fields of litter
and houses built from tin.
Intestines sold at the street corner,
a river dammed in dirt.
And I feared that it would stick to me,
drag me down like muddy soil,
like strife.
That my skin might darken in the sun,
my features wither,
my beauty gone.
This is what I felt as we drove by,
its what they’ll see when they look at me.
They’ll see fields of litter in my skin,
in my mother,
in our accents.