Jackal Moonlight Poem by Goddo Faggotte

The Nama welcomed me with a handclap
(Ai Nam se Kind)
to their Desert of Diamonds.

The ‘middelmannetjie’ our quartz guide
All the way to the mission station at
Khubus // Kuboes
Picaso’s Cubist Heaven.

All geometry and angles,
Light and shadows,
Planets and Stars.
Hul agterplaas ne’s die maan
The back of the moon
A Lunar Landscape.

The diamonds of the Richtersveld
Are born to desolation,
Hardened by Loneliness.
They shimmer in their solitude.
Then ripped as an unborn foetus
From the womb of Mother Earth.

The Kalahari Dunes their midwives
Facets and Carats their birthright
In the jackal moonlight
Echoing back into the Dome of Heavens.