Abandoned Zimbabwean Farmhouse Poem by Gert Strydom

It was a great commercial farm
at a time,
says the uncultivated fields
where the last crop of maize stands
not harvested at the right time,

says the big house
build from rock with Rhodesian teak floors
and great wooden doors
of which only splinters remain
where they had been axed
for fire wood

says the huge barn,
with a now rusting roof,
now stripped from anything valuable

says the stable now bare
from any living animals
and its obvious that the farmer
and his family left in haste
and that everything is going to waste

says the broken china cups, the broken dinner plates
the child’s toys which are scattered, smashed
and I wonder if the family did survive
when the farm was invaded
by a thieving unruly youth
and so-called war veterans.


[Reference: Abandoned Farmhouse by Ted Kooser.]