Gert Strydom Poems

(in answer to D. J. Opperman)

To you who after years I do know intimate and thoroughly
I come with my ideals and also all of my dreams,
...

It was at a time
where you had
to wear a uniform to school,
had to cut your hair
...

After the rain
the air is full of swallows
swishing up and down
hanging in it
...

I am trying to get a job
at Springs
and wonder why people live here
away from Johannesburg
...

Every day rain falls down
from the overcast grey sky
and lightning bolts
flash blue white
...

A young girl and an old man
walk down steps
to the stretch
that the beach at Houtbay
...

I see a ship
passing beyond the breakers
white on the top
and red at the bottom
...

At night the light shines
with a tender yellowness
through the blue pool
as if encased
...

At the parking
of the Ok-bazaar / Shoprite in Springs
a one-way street runs out
straight into a traffic light
...

Sometimes I wonder
what kind of criminals
is doing business today
in the new South Africa
...