THE CUSTODIAN’S HAND (en Inglés) - Thabang Sir Moloto

What do we owe the things that came before us?

What do we preserve, what do we repair, what do we refuse, and what must we transform before it reaches another generation?

The Custodian’s Hand is a collection of poems about inheritance-not only the inheritance found in houses, money, names and possessions, but the quieter inheritance carried in memory, family patterns, unfinished dreams, labour, obligation and time.

Across six movements-Inheritance, Memory, Debt, Wealth & Work, Mortality & Time, and Repair & Transmission-these poems examine the strange position of being handed a world we did not build and yet being responsible for what we leave behind.

A key becomes more than a key.

A photograph becomes more than memory.

A debt becomes more than money.

Work becomes more than labour.

An inheritance becomes more than property.

And the hand that receives must eventually become the hand that decides what deserves to continue.

These are poems about the difficult dignity of stewardship: the courage to preserve what is good, repair what has been damaged, refuse what should end, and transform what the future can no longer carry unchanged.

The Custodian’s Hand asks a simple but enduring question:

What condition will the inheritance be in when it leaves your hands?