At Nigel Dam (Free Verse Sonnet) Poem by Gert Strydom

(after Cornelius van der Merwe)

It's icy cold at the dam and you are fully woman
where a cloud of fog like a smoke cloud hang chilly,
and next to me you look at the line and policeman,
with me are catching fish on a winter morning,
like ancestral-spirits water-damp rise at the island,
circles appear on the water like an African myth
as if something unearthly wants to come out and you take my hand
but it's fishes swimming around the bait and no rite,
the grass is white with frost and still the doves coo in the trees,
your line tightens and you jerk and reel in while the water whirl,
I put on bait and you throw in with confidence
later stand for a photograph to be able to explain the event,
you shiver from the cold water when you set the fish free
and you stand like a beautiful goddess next to Nigel-dam.

[Reference:"Roodeplaatdam - 4 Mei 1992"(Roodeplaat Dam -4 May 1992)by Cornelius van der Merwe.]
© Gert Strydom