Abandoned Homestead Ruin Poem by Gert Strydom

(after Ted Koorser, after Carl-Pierre Naudé)

He was larger than life says the glance
in the old portrait that still hangs on a top-floor wall,
that he was big and tall says the faded jeans
and boots (a number fourteen)
that is dusty in a top-floor cupboard,

a wealthy man says the huge bed and old coins
that is out of circulation carelessly left
in a top room
and like his father and ancestors feared God,
says the huge old family-bible
that is dusty but still good with a list of ancestors in it
on a coffee table right next to the bed
but a farmer at heart says the layout of the fields
which are bare with only grass now growing in them
and the huge barn where old tractors and implements
and many tools
are tidy but all under a thick coat of dust.

He was married and in love says the bedroom
with its ancient silver candlesticks,
the huge pink bathroom
and extra cupboards,
that she cared for them
says the bottles of fruit preserve
and that they had a boy says
the toy soldiers, and toys of tractors and trailers
and the tyre-swing under a big oak tree

but now there is a huge tree in the middle of the house
that is higher than both stories
that does not regard them or even the house
where it's like an Yggdrasil
that connects heaven, earth and hell
and it does crack the floor and walls.

That there was a disaster
says the burned out downstairs remains of the house
where everything is black and lifeless except that huge tree
from where iron stairs lead to the top storey
where everything was left intact
as if people died on the ground level,
as nothing was removed or taken from the top floor
and that tree is lustrous where to the sky it does reach.

[Reference: "Abandoned Farmhouse" by Ted Koorser."Die murasie" (The ruin)by Carl-Pierre Naudé. Poet's note: The Nordic "Yggdrasil" is a legendary tree that connects the under-earthly (hell) , earth and heaven with each other. ]

© Gert Strydom