Kicking off the 2018 focus on the vernacular

 

To kick off our 2018 engagement with the multiple matters of vernacular work we  circulate here APC research associate and performance  poet Katleho Kano Shoro’s evocative, provocative and declarative poem:

Sesotho sa ka will not be written in italics

Sesotho sa ka will not be written in italics.
Next to English, Sesotho sa ka, too,
will have her back up straight
because I have decided to make it
a back-up-straight kind of poem.

Sesotho sa ka will not be written in italics.
Not unless italics is the theme of the poem
or that exact line needs to
slant so that when I recite it I know to lean back and emphasise here …

Sesotho sa ka will not be written in italics.

Poem from Katleho Kano Shoro’s poetry collection, Serurubele, published by Modjaji Books 2017. Poem used with the permission of the author.