Garth Rakumakoe

Tin Cups And Shacks

So cooling, they say

is the water from a tin cup

on a rickety stool

under a tree shade

And so homely

is the cleanliness

of organized squalor

 

They compliment, so good

the food they ate

with their hands

amid the abject absence

of flushing lavatories

 

Such is the perceived charm

of poverty

when merely visited

with promises 

of a better life