Dad Taught Me To Draw A Sailing Ship & Literature Poem by Margaret Alice

Dad Taught Me...

Mother used to play the piano
for hours on end, accompanying
all and sundry in singing, she
used to listen patiently while I
told her in detail of all the stories
I read - Dad taught me to draw a
sailing ship with a high sail in the
wind, and I taught him to draw
a little bird

My eldest brother taught me
the grammar rules; I read
his essays in wonderment
while my other brother built
pyramids according to Lyall
Watson’s descriptions, brewing
“mampoer”* which you could
drink, although it burnt, in his
own distillery

And my grandma took care
of us all…


*mampoer = home-made alcoholic brew


Every Pupil Hated So-Called Literature

We had to read Black Pilgrim and the
short stories of J. Van Melle at school,
it was quite clear the authorities were
waging a campaign to stop its citizens
from wanting to read anything other
than newspapers

Prescribed books were enough to make
us turn away from the serious literature
of the day - to compound the effect, they
prescribed “Ciske De Rat ”, a Dutch book
about a little boy sent to a special school
that gave him a servile attitude

We also read “Orpheus in de Dessa”
about an Indian flute-player who got
killed for involvement in elephant
poaching to stave off dying of hunger–
the education authorities made very
sure every pupil hated so-called

Literature!