Keulen 1948 Poem by Gert Strydom

I
In wire, poles, concrete and pieces of steel
Keulen is disfigured and almost theatrical,
torn open by bomb after bomb
and broken into pieces where people do come,
in the Second World War as a story
and hungry people wait right through the night,
where in a queue they wait for fresh bread
and the whole country must pay a price for Hitler,
Keulen is disfigured and almost theatrical

II
and happy teenagers stand and joke and laugh,
Keulen is disfigured and almost theatrical
and everything is stripped bare and bleak, stony and cold
where people do take out their last cents for survival
and all of Europe expected a better life and world
but the people are hollow-eyed an tired of life,
there are some that search in the rubble,
as if they can find something precious in the ruins,
Keulen is disfigured and almost theatrical.

© Gert Strydom