BREYTEN
(Based on a poem by Eduardo Galeano)
He was called Breyten: Breyten Breytenbach
Condemned to death in a prison in Pretoria
He was the only white man
Among many black people
Condemned
Every dawn an execution
Death leaked
Moments before the ground was opened
The condemned used to sing a last song
Those songs of the ones who were going to die
Woke Breyten up,
Every day a different one
Breyten avoided the gallows
But never again those songs
Condemned