In Those Late Cape Summer Afternoons (Italian Sonnet) Poem by Gert Strydom

(for Annelize)

In those late Cape summer afternoons when at seven
the sun did still hang high and the day was bright,
at half past seven night suddenly came with twilight
when fading the blue became much darker even

and as a student I did watch the big open heaven
for the biggest star, the planet, to come into sight
as if in seeing it something special came to the night
and most of those days ran for me to half past eleven

while I was working on assignments and seriously studying,
saw the moon hanging very high above dark Helderberg Hill
where the Hottentots Holland Mountains ran north to south,
where to me still as a lovely woman you remained everything
but at the time although separate you still held to me a thrill
and although apart I still remembered your eyes and mouth.

© Gert Strydom