Nothing's+Changed

=By **Tatamkhulu Afrika** =

Small round hard stones click  under my heels,  seeding grasses thrust  bearded seeds  into trouser cuffs, cans,  trodden on, crunch  in tall, purple-flowering,  amiable weeds.

 District Six.  No board says it is:  but my feet know,  and my hands,  and the skin about my bones,  and the soft labouring of my lungs,  and the hot, white, inwards turning <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> anger of my eyes.

<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> Brash with glass, <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> name flaring like a flag, <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> it squats <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> in the grass and weeds, <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> incipient Port Jackson trees: <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> new, up-market, haute cuisine, <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> guard at the gatepost, <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> whites only inn.

<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> No sign says it is: <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> but we know where we belong.

<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> I press my nose <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> to the clear panes, know, <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> before I see them, there will be <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> crushed ice white glass, <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> linen falls, <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> the single rose.

<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> Down the road, <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> working man's cafe sells <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> bunny chows. <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> Take it with you, eat <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> it at a plastic table's top, <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> wipe your fingers on your jeans, <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> spit a little on the floor: <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> it's in the bone.

<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> I back from the <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> glass, <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> boy again, <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> leaving small mean O <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> of small mean mouth. <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> Hands burn <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> for a stone, a bomb, <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> to shiver down the glass. <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> Nothing's changed.

<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Published 1994