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RHYTHMS*
Cicadas noisy in the trees,
Reggae in the next room,
Voices singing far off...

Are they the same voices I just heard?
Or does the sound linger only in my mind?

The Struggle goes on, far away,
Thousands of miles away.
Now it has come here.
To me.

I have been touched deeply.
I cry at the films: "Mandela," "The Last Grave at Dimbaza,"
Sitting amidst those who have seen it, have lived it,
Confirmed by them,
Made real by their knowing.

Tears.
Unwelcome.
With Anger.
Uncontrollable.

Lash out - at a world so cruel,
So uncaring,
So full of hate and fear,
And ugliness.

And then the songs begin.
The rhythms.
The spirit.
The spirit lives.

In the music.
In the rhythms.
In the souls of the people.

The Struggle will be won.
Someday.
Somehow.

I feel it in the music.

*RHYTHMS was written during the summer of 1987 when I was on the Resident Staff for the South African Orientation Program at Denison University in Granville, Ohio. The U.S. government and businesses sponsored a group of about 110 scholars, from thousands that applied, to travel to the U.S. and get the colleges educations they were denied under the apartheid policies that were still in place in South Africa. It was an amazing experience for all of us.

Learn more about this author, Sondra Deuber.
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