Not Yet ~ Uwais Coetzee

I heard about the accident
before I went to bed,
about how the car looked
as it was dripping red.
It was a ten car pileup
on highway 93,
and from all those people
the one who pulled her out was me.
Out of all the bones in her body
she'd broken 45.
The doctor came out looking grim and said
"By tomorrow she won't be alive."
I couldn't believe what I heard
or what the doctor had said
I needed to be with her and
sit next to her bed.
I sat by her bed
and watched her sleep
and by 7 a.m.
I heard the long beep.
We prepared the funeral
to lay her down to rest.
I thought about my life
and how it was a mess.
It was a funeral
that nobody wanted to miss.
We stood up one by one,
to each give a kiss.
I stood up and
kissed her forehead.
But as I leaned in she whispered
"Save me, I'm not dead."                      


©  Uwais Coetzee

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Grade 10
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Music of Life ~ Uwais Coetzee

If our lives were a record,

How would yours sound ?

Would I listen to it and get bored ?

Or be surprised by what I found ?

Would you enjoy your song ?

Played on the record player of life,

Repeatedly played on and on 

Replaying every strife.

Would you be shocked 

by what you tried to hide ?

That the door was locked 

when you tried to sneak back inside.

That you found that girl to be pretty,

but the conversation was a bore 

and when she hugged you goodbye you thought she was 'silly'

Because you wanted 'more'.

Had you the option to play your life out loud

on a record player today

in front of people in a crowd ,

would that be okay ?

Be happy about what you've accomplished

yesterday or today.

Be proud of your life and make it something

that you'd be proud to play.

© Uwais Coetzee

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Grade 10

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Love ~ Uwais Coetzee

The love inside is hard to describe.
It's difficult to wrap around my mind.
In my mind you wouldn't understand,
But in my heart love you would find.
Love for life and love for death,
Love for the sweetness of your breath.
Love for the song that the blackbird cries
and love for the ocean inside your eyes.
Love for the sky that is so wide,
love for love itself is hard to hide.
Love for our future in anticipation,
love in the present in expectation,
that love will be here
and we don't need to fear,
For in our future, present and past
My love for you has always been vast.


©  Uwais Coetzee 

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Grade 10
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Unknowns ~ Uwais Coetzee

In the crowd of a thousand people

I saw you.

Our eyes met and then and there 

I knew my love was true.

My gaze never dropped

from that deep ocean blue,

and that's when I knew,

I had to know you.

I walked right up 

and started a conversation

in my body before 

had I never felt this sensation.

We started to know each other,

our relationship had grown,

I spoke to you because I noticed you

In a sea of floating unknowns.

©  Uwais Coetzee

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Grade 10

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A Graveyard ~ Nsiki Gwala

A Graveyard

The dead lie still in
the cold dark earth.
A massive stone marks the dead-
the ghastly, rotting cadavers.
In time, the land is slowly
decorated with similar stones,
while mistletoe grows upon the
ancient oak trees.

There is no life,
no happiness and joy;
only the sorrow, pain and grief
sung by the ominous
dark crow.

© Nsiki Gwala

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Grade 11
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In the Heart of Darkness ~ Nsiki Gwala

As children, our lives were filled with
magic, hope and peace.
In time, we lost our innocence;
we lost our faith and the magic disappeared.
Pessimism took over -
unknowingly, we penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness.

The world's a sea of evil, or is it
our evil that's polluted the world?
Experience stole our innocence:
we saw the evil of crime;
we saw the dead or dying;
we saw the crux of hardship and deprivation.
But, that was fine, because we
held on to our dreams and faith
in something... anything better.

However, the darkness penetrated into
the roots of our lives.
Obstacles stood like barriers around every corner.
The way forward became unclear.
Our greatest dreams became
our darkest nightmares.
The pain and agony of despair
resonated through our eyes
from the depths of our souls
and God forgot we existed.
Unknowingly, we searched for some last,
dying, shred of hope in the silent void.

The pain became too much, so we forged
the happiness from the evils of the world:
we bathed it in gin and strong liquor;
we smoked and doped up in anything;
and we danced like the day was our last,
while trying to drown the sorrow and bury the pain.
We didn't know we were digging a dark hole
from which we could never escape.

We found ourselves quarrelling and killing
for the rush, or the money.
There was no wrong or right.
Innocent blood seeped through the face of the earth
and our bloodstained hands
made a mark on the earth.
The shadows of the night became
our greatest acquaintances and
we could not see the stars.

Now here we are, standing on the grounds of hell.
There's no hope and no help for us here.
We walk across the face of the earth
alive, but barely Living.
All dreams died a lifetime ago.
There is no future and no light.
There are no more tears.

So we'll just stand here in despair,
deep in the heart of darkness.
We'll stand all alone and
reach out for the hand of death.

©  Nsiki Gwala

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Grade 11

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