Phillippa Yaa de Villiers
South Africa
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Phillippa Yaa de Villiers A river of a city's sorrows heaves and sighs, painted vividly here by this evocative South African poet, playwright and performer.
BIOGRAPHY
Multi-award winning poet, playwright and performance artist, Phillippa Yaa de Villiers is a graduate... More >
The River
One day the Hillbrow Tower started to cry.
Real tears poured down its sides
collected in the gutters,
and ran down Banket Street,
and when
the other buildings saw the tower's sadness
they started to weep in sympathy.
Soon the whole city was sobbing,
the tears joined other tears
and filled the depressions and valleys.
They covered the koppies,
and collected in City Deep,
cascading over Gold Reef City
flooding Fordsburg
and soaking Soweto.
They flowed until they became a river
that carried us into the night,
where our dreams grew
taller than buildings
taller than buildings
