Margaret Alice Second (24 January 1961 / South Africa)

Learned that many of my forbears, the
pioneers, had been killed in Natal 1836*
my sister has unpacked magazines on
it her shop at the truck stop for drivers
on their way to Zimbabwe

The books were picked up hungrily, as
if more popular than her meringue cake;
this scared Quasimodo away - and I find
suddenly I am an enthusiast myself for
learning about those pioneers

Entering South Africa and delighted with
the Truck Stop Tuck Shop, André Rieu's
orchestra sparkling in my ears, the hydro-
agricultural document about constructing
dams reaching its apex, the human phase

Where man-hours are calculated, I am not
building the dam anymore, what a relief, I
can breathe - with a weekend ahead, life
suddenly seems quite wonderful - the
dance of love, the tango Olé Guapa

Now taking centre-stage…


1836* There is a new series on Facebook
where the trials and tribulations of the
Pioneers are presented as personal
Facebook accounts under the names
Piet Retief and Dingane, Ulrike my
colleague forwarded the information