Gert Strydom Poems

When the wind is adrift
not a pebble of sand is stirring
at the salt marsh vapours lift
...

When the Enola Gay on command
dropped her deadly bomb
unleashing moments of hell in Hiroshima
and a nuclear blast went off in destruction
...

I. Outnumbered by armour (A reply to William Shakespeare)

Outnumbered by armour
and by men we met the enemy,
...

There are carnations in the garden
in colours of ruby red,
pure white and blossom pink
and some pink with deep purple inside
...

They came in the middle of the night
in a huge crowd, almost like a lynching gang
the type who previously had torched,
burned their own alive
...

Before man the first time
found sheltering,
lit a fire to burn, to cook, to destroy
he was interested in the company
...

Every morning when the day begins
the sun rises beautifully red,
but at first I see the twilight
when the sun throws out its first rays gloriously.
...

I saw death come
by way of a machinegun,
I saw death come
quickly or more slowly to some
...

If we do look at things in history
no kind of rescue comes from history
and that was just another old story.
.
Peace, the government had promised me
...

Today part of my life is shattered
and lay in pieces
like a pane of broken glass.
...