Gert Strydom Poems

(in answer to Sally-Ann Murray)

How many times does a woman
set a task, wants a simple or more difficult thing
...

With your soft lips on my cheek
I am caught in moments that draw out,
I am melting in every beautiful gaze,
with eyes flaming and touching
...

Mother is upset where in silence she stands praying
seventy two rand is suddenly missing
and she do not know where she has put the money
and she does not want to fight with young Sarah,
...

I. ‘A macramé plant hangs close to her bed

A macramé plant hangs close to her bed
on the eiderdown she lays stretched out,
...

On one of the back benches in church
I see a young girl
unbuttoning the top of her blouse
with slender white fingers
...

When the summer sun covers us,
in the unstained cobalt blue,
with its rays shining in glory,
when the summer sun covers us,
...

On a day that felt like any other,
where the sun was hot
in a Pretoria spring,
when the jasmine and almost every flower
...

If science can make
all magic things just trivial
and give explanations to all,
cause the rainbow
...

Armed with small guns they came,
to me looked all the same,
then wanted to know my name.
...