SNOW OVER JOHANNESBURG

It is the first day of spring
The white man is rolling balls
Across the lawns of Johannesburg
Piling up new white people

These are bloodless and building
Blind monuments against
The African sun
The white man has waited seventeen years to do this
For the stuff of reinforcement to fall
From the sky
Seventeen years he's prayed beneath
The Southern Cross saying "Lord of Whiteness,
Give me a likeness unto myself.
Give me something to set out
On this land to seal
Our covenant."

It is the first night of spring
The white man is in his bed
In Johannesburg
A black woman whispers
And the snowman rises
His eyes become homing diamonds
He rises on round thighs and rolls
Into his maker's house
He rises and rolls to the white man's side
Stretching out a thick white arm
He reaches to the lips of his lord
Lusting for his easy heat he lays
His glistening fingers upon the tongue
One by one they melt there
Till the white man fills
And is still

And it is the  second day
Of spring



                                 -- from Heat Strings, SOS PRESS 1985