'Things I don't like'This poem was published for the first time in The New African in July 1962 but Bessie soon abandoned the genre after that. Some of her poems, which were never published, were then donated to the National English Literary Museum in Grahamstown and are said to provide an invaluable insight into her early life.
'Things I Don't Like'
"I am Black.
Okay?
Hot sun and the geographical set-up
Made me Black;
And through my skin
A lot of things happen to me
THAT I DON'T LIKE
And I wake each morning
Red murder in my eyes
'Cause some crook's robbed me again,
Taken what little I had right out of my hands
With the whole world standing by
And doing nothing...
Okay?
Oh no.
Today is my day.
Going to get back tit-for-tat,
All you stole.
Going to fight you till you or I
Lie smashed and bleeding dead
And don't care who dies, You or I,
But going to fight -
Okay?
Bessie Head
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