Behind the Garden Wall

She woke before the sun, I heard her singing in the kitchen Porridge on the stove and my school shoes shining at the door She lived in the little room at the back of the garden One bed, one window, and a radio, nothing more She tied me on her back when I was small, the way her mothers did She knew my fears, she knew my favourite song And her own children lived a thousand miles away With their granny in the homeland… I never asked how long That's just the way it was That's what they told us That's just the way it was, behind the garden wall We were kind… we were kind… within the lines they drew That's just the way it was… But it wasn't right at all We had a gardener, a grown man, we called him "boy" My father paid him more than the neighbours, and he'd say so with pride Then one night a van came screaming down our quiet road The police with torches and a sjambok at their side "Where's your pass? Where's your pass?" they shouted at the gate They took the man next door's gardener in his vest And my mother made some calls, and my father paid the fine And in the morning we all went to school… and never talked about the rest From the school playground we could see the smoke over Alexandra Black clouds rising past the rugby posts and the jacaranda trees They searched our bags at the shopping centre door 'Cause a bomb went off in a mall on the coast, by the sea My brother's on the border, they said we're fighting communists "The total onslaught," said the man on the brand-new TV "They've got their own homelands, they've got their own place to live" And I nodded… then I looked at her… and I couldn't make it make sense to me And I wondered at the Seder when we sang "we were slaves in Egypt" Every year we told the story, every year we wept for the oppressed Then she cleared away the dishes… from the table where we prayed And went back to the little room… and we let the story rest… She held me when I cried, she held me when I left She called me "my boy" at the airport gate the day we flew She was a mother to me in a country that wouldn't let her be A mother to her own… and I never really knew So this is for her, and for every one like her Who raised the children of the ones who held the key We were kind… but kind was not enough And she was family… but she was never free That's just the way it was That's what they told us That's just the way it was, behind the garden wall We were kind… we were kind… within the lines they drew That's just the way it was… But it wasn't right at all No, it wasn't right… at all… Thank you… for everything…