this city
of wonder and celebration to outward beauty 
but an inward reality that speaks to
urban override of history
culture
& landscape

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and in turn its connection to that for which it is celebrated - 
from the mountain that shows us the cosmos
the forest that romances and reveals
and the river that guides and cleanses

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wonders that serve now as signposts for dislocation, inaccessibility, urbanisation
that present a hidden perception of stories forgotten

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these stories however remain
untold in voice,
but seen in reclamation of the shore,
or of sweet rivers,
which bore the beginning of our written histories 
a colonial adoption and racial segregation
that separated our connection to

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these sweet waters,
that to which the Khoi first called our home - 
our Camissa forgotten.

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from river to canal to buried under road
that which gave life has been overridden,
a story that if remembered
could serve a well-being of its occupying citizens 
from street to cushy home - dissociated

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o’ how the benefit that natural can provide in recall 
priority
engaging a life speaking to
the positive sensory perception and experience, 
the cleanse,
that sweet waters, the mountain and the sea - 
to romance, cosmos and heavens

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of place that serves all