A Cape Winter Day (Rubiyat Sonnet) Poem by Gert Strydom

(for Annelize)

North-northwest the Cape winter wind howls
while out of the rain you dry yourself with a towel,
while the rain does pour down for many days
and shivering, outside we do hear an ominous owl.

The Atlantic Ocean storm-turbid smash against shoreline rocks,
the great oak tree whips up and down and on the roof knocks
where a hot fire burns in the fireplace and you smile happily
and I am soaked through from my head up to my socks

but in all of this you bring love and a kind of tranquillity
and in conversations, in your presence and bed I am cosy
while the winter is really chilly with snow on the high hills
and now in the winter of life you are still lovely to me

even if life outside is dark ominous with rain coming down,
I again want to have you and love you as my very own.

[Poet's note:There is an African belief that an owl does call on death to come or that it's a warning that death is coming.]

© Gert Strydom