Salt and Pepper

By Jamie York

Mashinini told us
of Krugerrand gold and slavery,
Kentucky Fried Chicken
and segregation, pass laws
and Coca-Cola.  We learned
of language barriers
in Soweto,
Johannesburg torture.
Mashinini told us
of these things
and more —
the hundreds of students
killed in rebellion, the thousands
held in concentration camps
without reason.
Mashinini told us
of the Volkswagon beetle
and starvation, of the open graves
at Dimbaza, waiting to be filled with children.