Confrontation With Baba Yaga Poem by Gert Strydom

In Angola
I saw Baba Yaga
come out of the wood
and in the blue sky
she hanged dark and hideous
with a canon in her beak
and rockets on her sides
that draws red lines
when she eats soldiers
by wiping them out.

No uglier witch
you could get anywhere
and she hanged bony
in the air
above our heads
while she collected skulls
with a shrilling noise.

Day after day
we were on recognisance
and she was there
until a stinger missile
fired by a Unita soldier
dragged her from the sky
and she went flaming to the ground
and ploughed a furrow on her side.


[References: ”In a number of East European and Russian myths, Baba Yaga is a cannibalistic witch who lives in a hut on the edge of the forest. She is also called Jezi-Baba or Baba Yaga Kostianaya Noga ('bone-legs') , referring to the fact that she is rather skinny. She is regarded as the devil's own grandmother.” Confrontation with a Russian Hind helicopter gunship.]