20 May 1983 (Free Verse Sonnet) Poem by Gert Strydom

Terrorist men in a cream coloured car blew up the world,
blew up the lives of many pedestrians
who were just innocents going on their own way
on twenty May nineteen eighty three.
The huge explosion did smash, scatter and crush
many men, women and children
did disfigure sully and defile,
did tear limbs right off,
where terrorists did act towards any passing person
on instructions from Nelson Mandela from prison,
where the shrapnel and the flying glass
with one great thunder did rain down
and in Pretoria, South Africa, I did witness all of this,
how the world turned to cruel inhumanity.

[Poet's note:Nelson Mandela admitted to ordering the Church Street bomb in his book: "Long walk to freedom."

© Gert Strydom