When He Walked Into His Cell Poem by Gert Strydom

(after Eugène Terreblancé)

When he walked into his cell
with the light falling through a small window,
with the jail door slamming close behind him,
the hammer of the judge was still sounding in his ears,

he did not realize that God was waiting there on him,
while his whole world was shattered into pieces
and as the darkness of the first nigh was cutting through him,
he came to a confession

that he had changed and somehow had forgotten about God,
but still God was near to him
and in the raw stench of tobacco and sweat,
a new realization came to him

that the light of God was still shining over him,
that his own pain and longing disappears in the presence of God.

[Reference: Hy Hou Wag (He Is Guarding) by Eugène Terreblancé.]