Gaborone

This city conceived as a tiny station

was truly born in the nineteen sixties.

The seventies saw it expand massively

thanks to diamonds found

at the edge of a marvellous desert.

In the eighties the fast growing town

of scattered Thorn-tree bushes was bombed

by rabid racists for hosting liberation combatants

and in the nineties it was infected

and misruled right into stupefaction

and at the turn of the century

it was looted blind by sly fraudsters

and double-dealing politicos.

The second decade of the twenty-first century

saw it locked down by a pandemic.

This city of spaced-out role models

who look lost in perplexed peace.

This city of swindled denizens

who seem to be waiting for the sun

to set so that they can unfold

their hearts and dream of

diamonds they hardly get to see.

This city of bovine stupidity

and youthful optimism

held together by some weak glue

and melting aspirations.

This city of sunburnt smiles,

a refreshing sanctuary

home to famished but hopeful dreamers

who refuse to stop yearning

for days of abundance yet to come.