BACK HOME (Ekhaya Lam)

 

Bushes of bareness

Bushels of long times gone

This is a welcome tiredness

This is a happy madness

Barefooted children playing in the mud

Dew in the grass

Cud chewing cows in the brazen field

Happy masses

Buses,

Filled with children of the throne

I know I am home

Home,

Land of kingdom come

Home,

Barren land of hope and wisdom

Home,

Land of dream and rest

Birds of crest,

They send a cry of hope

Flying in the mountain tops

Feathers of the same kind

Winds of flight soaring with the free mind

Announcing the call of the long forgotten child

For this is the mother land,

Home,

This is the cry of the hunger bird

Featherless bird of prey

Nest-less son of man

Hungry dog baying in the afternoon sun

Hunger pang that calls you to go home to your pain

‘Go home, my son...’

‘Go home and toil...’

Go home, my daughter...’

‘Go home,’

‘Child of the soil...’

For you now long for your mother’s touch

The sweet bird calls

The quick embrace draws me close

The door of hope knocks and opens

And the clock of life starts to sing a good song

It welcomes me back home

Welcome back home, my child

Welcome home

Qoki Ekhaya!

Sanibonani!

Ngikhumbule ekhaya!!

 

 

– Mbonisi P. Ncube (06/12/2009)