Gert Strydom Poems

Streets are full of vivid bougainvilleas
while clouds start to touch Table Mountain,
white horses are running from the sea to the beaches
and the southeaster blows at its full strength.
...

Now many centuries after his death
I know that there had never been a king
that on this earth did breath
who by his valour and nobility had my heart rising
...

Tempered, complicated – O you that bold
send armies from your office to roam the earth
spoiled by charms, power from birth
your deception has been told since the kings of old.
...

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

In your smiles and gleaming eyes
there is a land of wonder that begins
and you are mine like the winds whispering
at the blooming flowers in the garden
...

Your white body lies like a continent
with breasts as hillocks, slender thighs
and the valleys somewhere in between
while tiny shadows fall in the afternoon.
...

The darkness comes quick this time of year
while the sieving rain draws near
and almost lost
at times in the twilight it feels queer
...

With eyes far greener than the sea
she looks at me and there is some tranquillity
when she folds her hand round mine in trust
reminding me of purity, of a white lily
...

Could I play like you, like a lion cub,
spending my days inviolate with the world,
when you were innocent, intact
had tried to touch butterflies with deadly paws,
...

On the battlefield with bullets whistling,
beyond enemy lines without food or shelter,
...