Channel Esther: South Africa Chronicles #8

by Esther Cohen

WE ARE LEAVING CAPE TOWN IN THE MORNING

Tomorrow we are going to Kruger National Park. To see animals. And then, to Johannesburg where we will visit the street where my grandfather lived when he left Lithuania so many years ago.

1
I have never
felt so white before.
Even though
of course I am
a White Jew
I’ve passed for mixed
much of my life,
poor man’s Angela Davis
here there is
so much more You’re White
conversation and I
have never spent this
much time thinking
about white.

2
Shireen Badat new friend
I do not know her well
said stop reading books
about South Africa.
Reading books is what
I know. Just feel
she said. You’ll understand
better that way.

3
We are sad to leave.
Even knowing for sure
we will return.
One of those
Big Places. Places
you can’t help
but love.