By IAIN T. BENSON
Published December 5, 2013
Madiba has been a long time a-dying.
I’ve driven, we all have,
past his Houghton home;
cream security walls
even him.
Behind power and wire
cameras watch for mayhem
coming in
even legends need protection here
despite all that he gave
on that dusty isle
so many years and stones.
How very different is it now
behind high electric fences;
the food is better
doctors, journalists hang
on every pulse and breath
and now there is universal adulation.
when homes and hospitals resemble prisons
what does freedom mean?
– Iain T. Benson, Loudas, St. Pe de Bigorre, France 11.vi.2013
COPYRIGHT © Iain T. Benson 2013
Poet, professor and lawyer Iain T. Benson is Professor Extraordinary, University of the Free State – Faculty of Law, Department of Constitutional Law and Philosophy of Law at Bloemfontein, South Africa, and former Senior Associate Counsel at Miller Thomson LLP, Canada. F&O publishes Behind Houghton Walls with Dr. Benson’s generous permission.
Nelson Mandela died the evening of December 5, 2013, age 95, after an extended illness.