Ninth Poem Tonight Poem by Diana van den Berg

No Internet connection
again tonight.
Urghhhh!

So, Telkom, ‘cos I can’t send Linda
the recovery messages her friends posted to her,
nor read poetry on any forum,
nor email friends and relations,
I swallowed my frustration
(Telkom, you can swallow the Urghhh
and whilst I am not actually wishing
that you choke on it,
rest assured that
if you do,
I won’t be doing
CPR
on you
tonight!)
and I wrote nine poems,
but not out of weakness,
so, Telkom, don’t think you won,
for the truth is
that in return,
I am paying you the greatest insult
that I possibly could,
and that is that I have scraped away
the last vestige
of respect
that I ever had
for you.

(18 February 2011)