Girl With The Long Blonde Hair Poem by Gert Strydom

Girl with the long blonde hair,
you wiped a lost tear
out of your eye
when the jet
made the skyline of Los Angeles
fade away in the distance
and giant buildings
disappeared into naught.

So I wondered if you know
how a green country
with plains
and open spaces of the Karoo looks
and have you looked
at wild game grazing,
or will nature
be strange to you?

I couldn’t wait
to be back in my own country
and your opinions about apartheid,
knowing something
but without comprehension,
for a while
pinched me sore
and it was evident
that you didn’t really understand
and also that my country
are slowly but surely
falling to pieces.

I told you something
about my people,
about a country
where the sun always shine
and that I also
just want a place there
and the break
with your boyfriend in Iraq
had split your heart
in two
and we talked for a long time
and suddenly you comprehended
that Afrikaners are just like
any other people
and you were already half in love
when we had to part,
but it was apparent
that we are living
in two different worlds.