By Jambiya Kai, World BEYOND War, September 6, 2020
POKERMAN
If you play your hand in the hope of sensual offers of success, ponder the false imagery of hope
and indulge superficial calls of happiness, then that god owns a part of you.
It is mammon’s mental games that hold you captive as he webs a band of restlessness tightly around your desires and draws you in, one glowing sceptre at a time.
a god that manipulates your nutrition.
your dwelling place,
your habitation.
Chains of bondage dragging you inside the mangy walls of dark and damp dungeons from which you can be saved.
Yet you will never be free
if you appraise a crafty warlord;
bound by your inner rebellion and secret nurturing of what should be burnt and banished.
Stop sharing space with the dead from which you should run;
find no pleasure in popcorn peace
lest you be submerged in a sticky abyss of no return.
As a dog returns to its vomit so is the man who puts his hand to the plough and looks back;
a mere salt encrusted figurine mounted in mid air,
the shrine of a soul who refuses to let the warmonger go.
Such is the nature of mammon’s games –
The fiendish fashion icon.
If you play often enough it will drive a stake through your heart and own your soul; slit your throat and leave you bleeding.
Disengage from the possessed materialist;
from the “Fuhrer” who promises bread but gives a stone.
Disregard leaders who steal your meal.
Stop the games,
protect the back of your brother;
Join him in the firing line –
be the media spine,
and together you must cry,
“This is my living space,
my country,
My home –
This is,
“My Struggle”.
Jambiya Kai is an emotive writer and storyteller from South Africa who weaves the tragedy and victory of the human experience into a tapestry of memorable imagery and metaphor. She speaks with honesty on the socio-spiritual challenges of our time.
