…… A Letter to the Superintendent on #HateSpeech Fine
Oh, Superintendent!
I open my mouth. I eat a mackerel
And you ask for a shark in return.
A wilting pond cannot boom beyond
its confine.
If one hateful word could haul a decade
of salary. Your law becomes usury that
erodes the little love we have.
You collateralize us to loans that buoy
the pockets of few. Yet I should not cry
nor curse my fate. But to cough out
money because I utter a curse.
If my thought could corrupt my language,
would you not soon control that too and
arrest me for “hate-thought”?
If hatred cost so much, how much would
be for love? Could a pond of love have
reared a shark of hatred?
If our voices and your visions suffered a
vicious difference and jobless youths are
to pay or silently suffer their fate, would
you not become a Caesar of *benefits?
If patriotism is forced or coerced or fined
into us, could we call your land a *Jerusalema,
oh, Superintendent?
Adesokan Waliyulahi, toonday
*benefits– a new term for yahoo boys who get their riches from Covid-19 benefits.*
*Jerusalema– how South-Africans pronunce Jerusalem.