What is amiable weeds in the poem othings changed?
“Nothing’s Changed Small round hard stones click under my heels, seeding grasses thrust bearded seeds into trouser cuffs, cans, trodden on, crunch in tall, purple-flowering, amiable weeds. District six. No board says it is: but my feet know, and my hands, and the skin about my bones, and the soft labouring of my lungs, and the hot, white, inwards turning anger of my eyes. Brash with glass, name flaring like a flag, it squats in the grass and weeds, incipient Port Jackson trees: new, up-market, haute cuisine, guard at the gatepost, whites only inn. No sign says it is: But we know where we belong.” –Tatamkhulu Afrika Of course, you know this is a political poem about aftermath of Apartheid in South Africa. The speaker has returned to Cape Town where “District Six”, a thriving slum area of the city, had been demolished long ago by the white majority party. ‘Amiable weeds’ mean friendly weeds; they may appear friendly because they know nothing of what he knows, ” No sign says it is: but w
