Situation Report Of Reconnaissance: Caprivi Strip Poem by Gert Strydom

(after Bernard Odendaal)

1. Native Village (Free verse sonnet)

In the early afternoon we walk through the endless bush,
come upon small cultivated fields with branches around
where five cattle and eight goats come out of the shade,
smoke rise from fires with the smell of food,
where women stop there constant pounding of maize,
small naked toddler children stare at us amazed,
their fear is undisguised,
an old man talks and wears clothes from a fox,
he wants to slaughter one of the goats for us,
we do not accept his hospitality,
the women continue with their household tasks,
we can barely understand each other and nothing is suspicious,
just primitive fields on red-ground
and with the reconnaissance we have got to continue.

2.Signs of terrorists are found (Free verse sonnet)

Southwest parrots chatter the late afternoon blue
where the Bushman tracker find tracks
of a old women and a very small child,
while it feels as if nothing can hold any danger
but we keep looking at the ground and terrain,
the Bushman sniffs smoke somewhere far away on the wind,
we find five lions in a group devouring a kudu
and that bright hot day is only in my memories:
Other tracks of a group of men lie in the sand
the Bushman indicates that there are fifteen of them,
contact is made on the radio network and commands are received,
I scout the bushes around us with a pair of binoculars in the hand,
the LMG ways heavily and can destroy a multitude
when a sudden deadly silence hangs everywhere around us.

3. Ambush (Free verse sonnet)

They sneak close to us in the tamboti,
in the buffalo-grass, past acacia trees
and hesitates for moments at a marsh swamp,
the birds suddenly become silent, even the insects,
but they do relax, do light cigarettes and smoke,
linger for long moments and laugh loudly
and I can smell the stinking sour of their sweat,
while my heart beats anxiously,
hadidah ibises suddenly fly up screeching,
impalas in a herd flee away from them
and they walk straight into our ambush
with AK-47 rifles hanging without interest,
somewhere a black long snake rustle through the grass
and when my LMG comes alive my fear is gone.

4. Scribbling of an enemy skirmish (Haiku's)

With the enemy
we forget everything,
people die suddenly.

*

I smell sour-sweet blood,
all the air stinks as it hangs,
rifles stutter harshly.

*

A mortar bomb falls,
explode with a thunderclap,
nobody is hit.

*

We answer their fire,
my light-machinegun stutter,
shoot the bush open,

*

more commands do come,
their fire become sporadic,
suddenly does stop.

5. Scribbling of a follow-up hot pursuit (Haiku's)

Silence hangs with us,
fear suddenly sneak nearer
where we are scouting.

*

There is just thicket,
coots suddenly do fly up,
the marsh is empty,

*

everything is silent,
some of the enemy die,
a cobra does hiss,

*

the snake sails away,
some bloody tracks lead away,
an enemy dies.

*

more tracks flee further,
many more bundle together
disappear trackless,

*

the Bushman do scout,
we cat-sneak around the rocks
but do find no one,

*
we do find the spoor,
to Angola we do track,
do follow at a jog.

*
Near the cut-off line:
radio signal is weak,
just hissing, screeching.

*

Tired we drink water;
antenna runs up a tree,
radio is strong.

*

Enemy left country:
Command: "do not cross border.
Well done, on our side."

*

At the cut-off line
a chopper picks us up,
do fly back to camp.

*

Our situation:
killing does destroy the soul,
still scouting the heart.

[Reference:"Sitraps van ‘n veegoperasie:Ovamboland,1979" (Sitrap of a sweeping operation: Ovamboland 1979)by Bernard Odendaal.Poet's notes:A LMG is a light-machinegun. The cut-line was a cleared buffer zone at the border. ]

© Gert Strydom