Blood-And-Thunder-Adventure Poem by Margaret Alice

Margaret Mahy, one of my favourite children’s authors,
wrote “The Blood-and-Thunder-Adventure on Hurricane
Peak” - which sounds ever so much grander in Afrikaans:
“Die zoep-zap-en-zirts-hom! -avontuur op ORKAANPIEK” -
just like my father’s Afrikaans version of Spaghetti Westerns
“Skiet-Skop-En-Boem-Boem” – is better than the English

His description of an unkempt fellow, namely “Ramajaffel”
is amazing - and his description of a bad-tempered woman
“Shrew” is absolutely top of the pops: “Je lelijke oude micrijvel”
I’ve never heard it anywhere else – there was an Afrikaans
program with the Van Helsdingen and Jan Salie who sent
his antagonists home in his own wheelbarrow –

Then found to his astonishment that they wanted to prosecute –
could it be some archaic form of Belgian, Flemish, or Dutch
that gave rise to these enchanting terms?

“Skiet-Skop-En-Boem-Boem” = Shoot-Kick-and-Boom-Boom
“Je lelijke oude micrijvel” = You-Ugly-Old-Woman