Past A House Poem by Gert Strydom

We yesterday
drove past a house
near a shopping centre

and at the front wall
the plaster was broken,
the garden that was something
at a time
was treaded to pieces
and left uncared.

The front door hanged decaying
and when my eyes
walked down the corridor
some of the ceiling was missing,
and the wooden floor
was being used for firewood

It seemed as if the house
was now really becoming a ruin
and a naked black toddler
were crawling outside

and a very thin dog
looked as if it never got food
and my darling said:

“We stayed here at a time
and once this house
belonged to us
and it was a beautiful place
and just see how it looks now.”