Life truths

My parents' neighbor
was attacked in his backyard last week.
His nose is broken.
He has stab wounds in his back.

Two friends on their way to work at seven in the morning.
Five armed men waiting
for the moment between
the night alarm being switched off
and the morning alarm being switched on
before stepping out from behind the garage.

I meet someone for coffee
to discuss a class I will be teaching.
She calmly discusses being robbed by five men,
four of them armed with pangas.

She looked up from her computer
to see a man standing in front of her.
When asked who he is he said :
"It does not matter who I am".

She describes how she was made to lie down on the floor
not knowing if her partner was alive or dead,
her relief when he was made to lie
down next to her and
the comfort she obtained from the warmth
of their quivering elderly Labrador.

She talks of being robbed of everything
including scatter cushions and clothes,
in twelve minutes.

Only when she describes
them taking the laptop
on which she was busy finishing off
a reference list for her honors thesis
does her eyes fill with tears.

A good friend and her daughter invites us
to a celebration fire on Sunday.

They were ambushed in their garden by six men.
Her jaw was dislocated,
her face battered and bruised
yet she refused to respond to their violence.

Her body became so heavy
that they could not pick her up.
Even when being hit in the face
she felt no pain.

She knew she could not allow
them to take her,
or her daughter,
inside the house.

She speaks of the joy
of being alive,
of feeling her daughter
being placed next to her
and feeling her warmth.

They were on their way
to make a fire
when they were ambushed.

Now we light the same fire
to celebrate the beauty of life.

Another friend and her husband lost
their gardener to Aids
three days after he was diagnosed.

When clearing out his room
they find all his medication
in unopened packages.

Today I facilitated a discussion
amongst a group of young students
on the masks we wear.

Suddenly the conversation became real.
My assumptions fell out beneath me.

I found myself staring into
the knowledge that there are no answers.
Only the truth of living our lives.