A poem by Johanna Nurse Malobola

Death Who has ever really seen you? If I could jump you into the ground with then I would teach you a lesson. You, death Who has ever really spoken to you? When you come, love finishes itself When you com, joy stops itself When you come, pain ends Where are the women working in the white suburbs? Where are our brothers and sisters? Where are the young people of the initiation rites? Death, you are so jealous When you come, you slink like a cat Your thorn pierces your hands are stained by grief Death, you are without shame You harvest were you've never sown People plough, but you pick People give birth, but you rob People heal, but you destroy Until when, when? Every day we bury the dead How big this grave has become! Oh and you never tire Of the lament of widows Of the tears of suffering Death, you are brave Here are the fat cattle of my father In the kraals the cows low The bulls bellow, also the calves The men laugh happily with each other But on the other side are tears- Death has come If only I could stalk you from behind And pull you down like a lion If only I could throttle you

Title We think that the title makes it sound as though someone is being left alone, fading, as everyone around them is dying. We predict that the poem will be about the story of someone close to the author, about their life and death.

Paraphrase The author is saying death ends all happiness. She also says that she wishes she could destroy death, pouncing on it like a lion.

Connotation “ People heal, but you destroy.” We think this means that people may be healthy, but death comes and takes them away. It could also mean that when death comes, it may destroy their lives. “Your thorn pierces.” This means that AIDS is like a thorn because when a thorn cuts you, the original wound may not seem so bad, but it could get worse.

Attitude The speaker seems to question what death really is. She asks what happens to people after they have been touched by death. The poet speaks of the sadness that people encounter during AIDS. She explains how big of an impact that AIDS makes and that it stops all the happy things that you used to enjoy.

Shifts The speaker shifts from being more passive and observant to speaking more aggressively against what AIDS is doing to people. She goes from asking what happened to people to expressing how she wants to stalk down death and get rid of it.

Title Our initial interpretation is the same as our interpretation after we read the poem. “Death” doesn’t exactly have a lot of interpretations.

Theme The poet is saying what Aids is doing that is affecting us today. She’s saying that we should care, and it’s not something just happening in a far off place.

Katelyn Nelson Kaity O’Hara Julia Schlough