Jozi...

I took a drive out of the lush suburbs, with their tall trees, with their busy middle-class-to-upper-class wealth zooming about in their silver shiny cars...

I took a drive up the hilly roads, down into shallow valleys and sideway curves, leaves lining the concrete curbs where impressive walls and barbed wire poles defend mansions or african palaces of sorts...

I took a drive to the freeway, where speed is free and too carefree, where the sunset light warms the faces of frustrated drivers approaching that stand still traffic light where snails move faster than four wheels and an exhaust pipe...

I took a drive to the smoke and smog that traces a line along the sky that highlights the skyscraping glass and tar buidings which vibe with busy business, civil and criminal activity...

I took a drive across that straight standing slightly slanting very erect Nelson Mandela bridge and dreamed of walks to freedom and crossing over to a better place with millions before and millions behind, a wealth so fulfilling I could never eat again...

I took a drive off that bridge into a looming darkness, an inexplicable sense of danger, thilth and delapidation surrounded by overcrowded taxis and overcrowded pedestrians who own this city but can't seem to rise above it to contain it...

I took a drive into smaller city roads with failing streets lights and late night car spray painters who look suspiciously at me as I do at them as I bear left to that magnificent view of thousands of matchbox tins each with a match a-light, flickering in unison announcing to world: this is where life is

I took a drive to where life is and was and will continue to be on top of you, shared intensity of identity and identical houses, housing more families than one can hold and more dust streets where little girls sent to get bread will meet a cruel fate but will be cleaned up by Sunday morning's church mass...

I took a drive by the old dutch church with its beautiful tainted windows and felt the peace all around it, respect all around it, love and life all around it boosted by the tuck shop type little businesses with their black metal bars to lock up life come night

I took a drive at night to see the hillsides glisten with lights and life and I felt the danger and the freedom and the love and the struggle, the complexities, the colours, the race, the mourning, the chase, the complacency, the celebration, the withdrawal, the fight, and the life - Jozi.