At Night Poem by Gert Strydom

At night helicopters do patter past
with searchlights that do shine down
like hornets out hell
and others do fly quickly to hospitals
and emergency situations
as if they are angels
that does bring mercy to those that are hurt

while the sirens of patient fire-trucks,
those of the unhappy police do disfigure the night
and at another place in the world on the other side of the ocean
a terrorist that does serve his own Allah is found,
where he wants to take the lives of others
and do want to destroy himself along with them

and the Police and some soldiers do come armoured
like a force from the underworld
with sirens that do scream so loud
that they do awake even the realm of the dead
when they do storm with masks,
helmets and machineguns
and switch on terribly sharp lights,
do corner him like a moth against a building.

© Gert Strydom