Written piece
Selina Sellwane
Mpho Seleteng
Lesotho
About this piece
This poem is an ode to my grandmother Sellwane. Who felt that she played second fiddle to her husband. Being a wife; mother and grandmother could never eclipse the treasure she was. Her legacy is an inheritance to those loved and left behind; a memento from embers wild.
Introducing a trope woven from:
A line of Hobson's Choice martyrdom
I come
From a line of women
Whose working hands are loving hands
Although steam-worn --- whose fierce gumption never thawed
Who know their citadel? The clever ways of grace
Masene ha a na moeli
No silver spoon nor paddle boat
Whose bones thwarted boulders
Crossed
borders,
tides,
confines,
Ashwalked through dark and blight
Striding with stunted might
into
shrouded
light
Yet
flame still ignited...
Memory a memento
Of bravado and of love
Joy and laughter-choral-hum
Could knit you up a scarf
U thebe, u lebone
Yeah, your absence is haram