Jandeer’s Youth Poem by Charl JF Cilliers

Way back in his last year
at school Jandeer
knew how much he hated them –
so much so it had become an emblem
that he wore as a perpetual sneer
that stretched almost from ear
to ear. And no one was exempt
from his malice and his cold contempt.

He hated them for their money in the bank,
the ease of their successes, social rank,
their charm, their families, their choices and chances
of endless girls for end-of-year dances.

Worse than outright rejection was the bored
aloofness with which he was ignored:
the heads that turned away as he walked by,
the cold indifference in averted eyes.

He longed for something he could criticise,
openly find fault with or despise,
but nothing touched them, or
was so important they could not ignore
it. If he’d had a heart not long since turned to stone
he might not have so wanted them undone.
But by nothing he could say or do or feel
could he make his ambitions or desires seem quite real.