Poetry

A lifelong torment Of unsheathed knives and darkened rooms Cinema paradiso

Sorrowful sound of doves Echoes through canopy of trees Mournful lovers lost

  Icy glacial winds Blow hoarsely across the veld Landbound spectres wail

Perversion of trust Maternal instincts gone awry In arms of killer

Head raised, panting Weaving from side to side Questing for life itself Procreation

Nuns in shopping mall Incongruity at height Habits, not fashion

Long-lost memories Brought alive through pandemic Isolation thrives

 Merits of waiting In line at the local store Hub of turning day

Grief besets one in Waves of untold suffering Self-imposed torture

 Tortoises amble Throughout the house -- each intent On finding refuge

Gutted by the knife Of human unkindness, I Flounder on the floor Of my own dark imaginings Rock-bottom level

 Avariciousness And greed -- key drivers of today Little people swept away In quest for plunder

Softly beating heart Caught in ghastly metallic claw Crushing out its life Seeping out from between its talons Like prey in an eagle's grasp Demonic angel of the air

 Self-isolation No punishment for the recluse Only for the social

Tortoises hiding Away in crevices of home -- A West Coast summer

Gormenghastlike Staircases left hanging in midair Walls erupting in garden like molehills Building construction gone haywire 

Garden tortoises Fed and watered -- still wanting Escape into veld Gate opened -- let them wander Back to freedom -- dry and burned-out veld

 Emergency vehicles Go rushing past, sirens wailing -- Accident at Osdam farmstead

Butterflies flitting Around the garden -- joyful Signs of nature's bounty

Two yellow-billed kites On a gum tree bough overhead Soft whistling lovers

Such poverty lies Semi-buried beneath our feet Souls must surely weep

Oh, what bliss it brings To name choristers aloft Joyful feathered throng

All landlines stolen And mobile call networks down Phone service nightmare

Wooden post askew on road Leaning like loose tooth in gums Base-level decay

Bickering over Boundary pegs and border poles Berlin Wall ’ twixt neighbours

Pied crow harshly croaks Atop tall boundary post Harbinger of doom

Speckled guinea fowl At my feet scuffling – dustbound Pecking order rules

Finest hours on chat Spent discussing anything but Targeted work – lol!

Dogs in neighbourhood Bark at strangers passing by Impervious to noise [boemelaar = tramp] 

My fingers dance a Minuet upon the keys Typing as I go

 A voice comes from out the blue "Can we help?" and so do you Out of the depths of cyberspace Close to our side you then do race You denizens of a realm so true "Lifeline! We are here for you."

 Darkened gloom of shop Belies contents that offer Salve for conscience pangs

Your spirit captures And enthralls me by the hour You radiate warmth

 The inner rhythm Of  my days interspersed with Yours, my sweet young friend

 Upon the storm-tossed Sea of investments savings Fade relentlessly

The river beckons Softened as a blue chemise Reeds lining the banks

 Estranged from kindness The western mindset selfish To the very core

 Listening to books On audio frees the mind From mundanity

 Continuously Throughout the year West Coast breeze Caresses the ear

 Heat permeates rooms Desert sun beats down upon Suffocated Earth

 Snake lies curved on floor At end of summer's day heat Cretan mosaic

 Covid-19 you Destroyer of tranquil dreams Restorer of Earth's plenty

 Tramping through the veld Alone one finds snakes and birds Become close friends Allies even Against the preponderance of humankind Who laugh and jostle Fight and squabble In infantile fashion While the world around implodes

 To edit takes years Of painstaking work alone By oneself absorbed

 Aery swoops and soars Whilst in the marshes below Croaks and calls afloat

 Tortoise eats pellets Out of cat's dish placed on floor Feline pretensions

 Dizziness rampant Collapse and sleep for hours Low sugar count cause

Walking through the veld Joyful and at ease -- springtime Flowers on the slopes 

 Masked shoppers throng malls Each intent on own purchase Muzzled hounds at bay

 Verbal spats online Cats brawling on rooftops high Strident outcries -- pain

 Love your new house, friend Full of open spaces and Lots of room for me...

Mist settles on land Dry veld rejoices -- droplets fall Easing of the drought

 Shopping cart sounds start After nightfall -- hobos prowl The roads and bushes

 Pacing to and fro Like caged tiger confined Waiting the death knell

 Succulents on ground Green crystallized tentacles Octopi on land

 Tortoises grunt as Though in pain -- no pain as such Mere copulation

 Marrow bones -- burrowed Out spectacles for canine Treats -- fatty wonders

 Motivated by Fear of death we hang onto Life, despite taxes

 Icy glacial winds Blow hoarsely across the steppes Landbound spectres wail

 Clench your teeth against The wintry chill of men's hearts Else death frozen be 

Boundaries express Home ownership, even when They just surround land

 Pied crows kraak in trees Declaring their displeasure Mere morsels on ground

 Books worthy to own Shelves spacious or narrowly confined From dusty basements To well-lit collections wide Fit for consumption Dictionaries old Romances of brazen knights And dainty damsels fair Copy tangible A librarian's dream Bespoke jewels of crown Testimony to those who have gone before Remote glories of long-forgotten pasts Sundered from oral memory Structured in form of History

 Surreptitiously You move your fence, widening  Your territory Oblivious I You must surely think -- not so As you shall find -- 'friend'!

Defamation of Character not so if truth,  Only truth, be told

 Light as thistledown My speech -- not bound down in deep Heavy syllogism

 Encapsulated In fifteen words, my life -- short As a winter's day

 Poetry approval Hard-won, but still to make grade Of publication

 Veld-walking canine You love to explore -- hedgerows And thickets galore

  Neighbourhood alert No lights -- Eskom once more blamed Loadshedding despair