Now That Time Flies Past Poem by Gert Strydom

Now that time flies past
this will be seen
as Afrikaner history
and people will say
that it is past

but we know
he was jailed
like a criminal,

was later Prime Minister
and then President
(and it’s not Nelson Mandela
that I am talking about)
this man was a true Afrikaner
and seen by some
as a patriot

Maybe planted bombs
to blow up railway lines
and held a gun in his hand,
seen at a time
by white people
as a terrorist
and was jailed for it
but wasn’t a killer
like the terrorists of today

and later
he could take
the Big Black Book
in his hand
and on it make a solemn oath
before the Lord
and try to keep his promise,

until the big crocodile
snapped him in two
and walked into his shoes
and the total onslaught came

and eland armoured cars, later ratels,
artillery and rocket launching lorries
stood in Angola
to hit the communists
into pieces.