Martyrs, Inc.

It’s not that we have no power
It’s that we give it away
Every time we ‘forgive’ and bow down
Because ‘that’s what good people do’
Every decade we nervously laughed it off
Because they’re family
– you know what they say
about blood and water…

Every year I stayed because
What would I do without him?
What would he do without me?
Every day I sit in the presence
Of those who secretly love it
When they feel me tell myself
I can’t do better.

Every hour we’ve waited too long
When they’d promised they’d be on time,
this time…
Every minute we’re silently miserable
Because we think we need this job
Every second they walk all over us
And we take it in the name of peace;
When we do it
Because no one else will.

It’s not that we have no power
We gave it away
Built ourselves a world in which
I’m the peasant and everyone else is king
Everyone else is king
And you’re the peasant
Ever-giving, ever-swindled
Dying gracefully
Singing hymns on a makeshift cross.

Copyright 2011 – 2020 Tebogo Ndlovu

I’m in my late 20s and am a poet from somewhere in Africa. By day, I work in management for a fashion retailer and – by night – I read and write fiction. Currently, I’m working on my 4th poetry anthology. ‘Martyrs, Inc.’ is actually an excerpt from my upcoming anthology. The other 3 were written between 2011 and 2020, and published in June, 2020. They can be found here 🏾 https://www.amazon.com/s?i=digital-text&rh=p_27%3ATebogo+Ndlovu&s=relevancerank&text=Tebogo+Ndlovu&ref=dp_byline_sr_ebooks_1.