Beyond The Days Of Yore Poem by Gert Strydom

Gerrie went past the days of yore
to a world where trees
are gigantic in size
where the small farm dam is so big
that it has fish in it
and you are sure to get lost
at the big dam up in the mountain.

On his own he tried to row with the boat
over the small dam
but muddy water flowed in faster,
than he could get away from the shore
and then with difficulty
he had to draw the boat out of the water.

He found a dark brown crab
larger than his hand
and caught it from the top
and opened the small lid
between the pinchers
and small crabs came out from it.

There weren’t other children
to play with Gerrie
and he took the road
all the way through the hillocks
to the big dam

but when he was crossing the main road
Gardiël was passing
with the green John Deere tractor
and stopped and loaded him on the trailer
where Gerrie was standing looking out
at the grating and the wind blew
his hair apart
and at the Lucerne field
a guinea fowl hen
with a lot of chicks were passing
and it sounded as if she was screaming bankrupt

and Gerrie knew that they were poor
but not as much as that
and was wondering
from where she was getting her information?

At the stable he helped Thomas
to clean the milking machines
and saw him blowing out blue smoke fumes
after he rolled a cigarette
from a packet of orange-yellow BB-tobacco

and Thomas told about the tokkelossie
that at night
sneaks around as a ugly cannibal dwarf
catching naughty children
and disobedient wives

but Gerrie wasn’t afraid
of this nonsense
and if that creature maybe came
it would get an iron marble from his catapult

and later Thomas smiled broad
while the tractor drove away
and waved at Gerrie
until he faded away
becoming smaller than a dwarf.