She says the old ways are not for her <br />She has turned her back on the old gods <br />In the place of Mdalidephu she worships <br />The cellphone and the flashy car and money <br />She will not be seen dead admiring her old <br />Black and white photographs taken with <br />The rickety old Kodak camera <br />She's a bar fly in the city now <br />Her face is everywhere on the sites of <br />The social networks <br />She wants badly to be a celebrity <br />She e-mail them all world wide she's hungry <br />For friendship I hear someone warn <br />FACEBOOK addict and TWITTER slave <br />She has 'improved' a lot from the dirt covered <br />Village girl from the kraal of Chief Mahapa <br />Of Mokgotlong Of Moting Poso Of Ditaolaneng <br />Behind her back she is ridiculed in the social <br />Circles and they tell bawdy jokes about <br />Her escapades at the back seats of other women's <br />Husband's cars <br />Back home we pray for her soul <br />We ask the ancestors to protect her and forgive <br />Her despite her treachery <br />And we still write letters to her because <br />We don't trust the cellphone and the other <br />Marvels of technology that our children worship <br />And we urge her to use the same technology <br />To hit back and avenge her own enslavement <br />At the hands of technology by using it to <br />Benefit herself and others in a positive way <br />But not to let it be her personal god <br />And wherever you are child of my sister <br />Don't sell your soul <br />To the plastic culture of the city where <br />You see the pretty women laugh <br />But the smile is professional it lacks the warmth <br />And the hard eyes clash with the grim smirk <br />Do be careful with the smooth talkers of the city <br />The men there are not known for their will <br />To charm a sweet vulnerable girl like <br />You for free <br />Their smile is worse than the iron ore <br />Grin of the leopard and when they've won your confidence <br />Who shudders at what they'll do <br />To you when they surround you at midnight?<br /><br />BrokenHeartPheko Motaung<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/africa-poems-the-beloved/
