MY HOPE MY LIBERATOR

by Nkamang Tsotetsi
(Pretora, Gauteng, SA)

Hope my own friend I am still in dire need of your embrace
Hope my friend, I am dying for the feel of you in my soul again
I still need the courage you instilled in me, the courage I never had before
Without you I am no me no more

You are a friend who makes me laugh in rough times
You are a friend who makes me realise how hardships can educate
A friend through whose friendship I became stronger and stronger
Without a friend like you I am not able to smile

Through my years of tribulation I have been hanging on you
Through times of misery I have been seeing eventual positive
Through your strength to carry me, I gathered strength
Through your relentlessness, I became unrelenting

I sleep through darkness and wake up into sunshine
I know it is the grace of you that pulled me through the night
You make me able to see a bright life and better future
Future that is better than yesterday and today

My tears used to be like torrents and torrents before you
My tears could not be seen in a heavy rain before you
The whole of me was like lousy cloudy weather before you
I did not know what sleep and rest was before you

Please do not escape me my friend my hope
Without you, believe you me I am a moving corpse
You protected and carried me to where I emotionally am today
I am me, I am here, it is all the making of you my hope
I live with hope, and hope, and hope, and more hope