Poetry

Litter on bushes Far and near -- Chinese lanterns Lighting up the way

My large paw placed there On your paw -- rivalry over Friendship established

Spider webs glisten On green bushes and shrubs -- dishes Receiving insects

In dying moments Gutted mole pays obeisance To the setting sun

Dogs gambol in path Like hoydenish school children Set free for the day

Porcupine quills sharp Biting deep into flesh of unprepared And unwary -- keeping predators at bay

Water-filled buckets Containing roof overflow Welcome summer showers

Lattice-work on ground Sign of termite construction Beneath softened sand

Like the rapacious Huns You come to plunder Local harvests and plenitude Taking what is not yours Destroying the very structure Of all that is good and decent Time-honoured and true

Upland and downland Trust ground abuts Berg River Multipathed refuge

Molehills ev'rywhere As far as the eye can see Littered minefield

Seal-like, off nose Dog bounces thrown ball -- eager To impress mistress

Brutality of soul, Fostered under constricted Conditions, triumphs

Grenadilla plants Climbing fences -- well-watered -- Flourish in desert

Tortoise on its back As helpless as an infant In neonate crib

One dark and lonesome night I was raped in a shack by two men What I would like to tell them is: Violated but still loving You could harm neither my spirit Nor my soul All that you could do Is make me strip at knifepoint To your incessant demands Love conquers all, boys – did your mother never tell you?

You and your own special brand of Christianity You manipulate people for your own ends In the name of a faith that is aeons old How dare you? The God of kindness and mercy Is rendered pulp in your hands Papier-mach é for your own moulding Grist for your own mill You hypocrites

Drowning in treachery The noose of unhappiness Stretched tightly around my neck You wish me well and to have peace of mind Yet you do the worst that you possibly can To ensure I have none Hypocrites! May you wallow in the mire Of your own deceit and untrustworthiness Becoming steadily more sucked under into the morass of your own being By your lack of empathy and understanding May none of your endeavours prosper May you live so long as to become wracked with guilt You underminers and destroyers of faith in humankind  

The pain of my incessantly beating heart Intensified by the pounding of my brain The drum beats of my maimed existence Percussion in my ceaselessly searching mind Flawed beyond compare Like a cacophonous jungle roar Or a discordant symphony Crashing down around one’s ears Led by a spiritually deranged conductor The screech of chronic despair a far cry From the pleasant interludes of time and space Set in daintily laid out drawing rooms Where, a piano tinkling in the background Accompanies polite snippets of conversation Conducted over Dresden china cups of Earl Grey tea Supplemented by minute slices Of rich satin velvet cake Contained within the ambit of chastened hypocrisy A mind in therapy

You cast an eye upon my wounds Newly cauterised by surgically sure hands So much more skilful than your own Yet never as loving Scars they will form But not of your own making Warrior of yore Romantic hero of your own dreams Now bowed and bent with years

True hatred comes Bubbling up from below Emerging from the very core To blight existence For ever more Magma lava that spews forth From the centre of the Earth

Bat sails through house Like naked man streaking Across rugby field

Dishonesty thrives Where discrepancies exist Powerless vs empowered Hedgehog-like, honesty Reverts before injustice Self-immolation

Gutting sea urchins And extracting their tongues Hannibal Lecter cuisine

 Akin to the thrill Of receiving matric results Is publishing first time

Do you think that I don't hear Words they whisper in your ear? Tales of fun and words of wonder How they keep the others under Tales of cowardice and fear Of dire deceit and worldly plunder

Gloating over your conquest Like old-time conquerors of yore Rapists of the land and women Rapiers slicing through the minds Of the dispossessed Blunted by avarice and greed

 Tangible steps Is what it takes To vanquish the victor

Self-immolation Weapon of the sore oppressed In a subject world

 Ability to respond In colour -- the creators' gift To an otherwise bleak world

Overnight verdant growth Springs from dormant brush -- life comes Anew to the West Coast