Don't Forget Me, Dixie Poem by Gert Vlok Nel

don't leave me here
(what did you say? what did you say?) I said you mustn't
you mustn't leave me on my own in this country
where they still burn witches
this ugly ugly country
don't leave me here
Dixie, I don't know if you know without you
everything I have around me fills my
heart with wordlessness & dread all the people
& buildings that I
have around me all the years & hassles & shows that I now
have before me all the dead-end jobs that I have behind me
all the blue blue air that I
have above my head & all the dead loves that I
have under me & most of all this emptying bed
you
mustn't leave me here
(what did you say? what did you say?) I said
you mustn't mustn't leave me all alone in this village
where I grew up
where no one sees anything beautiful in me
where I am served by strange waiters
don't forget me
Dixie I don't know if you know how empty the pool halls
of my youth are the balls are pocketed & the music has
stopped in the dance halls of heart-pain & the blue cue-chalk
has gone grey in my hand while I looked for a moment
through the window at something somewhere
in the country you
mustn't leave me here
(what did you say? what did you say?) I said
you mustn't mustn't leave me alone on this planet
where God does not know us anymore

Translation: 2006, Richard Jürgens