Construction Poem by Gert Strydom

At the skeleton of concrete and steel
huge black pipes with running cement and stone
snakes in and are shaking while huge machines
are busy working day and night
and men scurry around like a huge nest of ants
that has been opened
with the gang-boss shouting instructions
above the noise and the architect checking in
every now and then and men drilling
with thudding boring machines,
yellow cranes are almost bending under the pressure
of what they lift and level after level
is rising while more and more trucks pull in
unloading their cargoes of materials.

© Gert Strydom