Pretoria: Evening Poem by Gert Strydom

After stringing along for a hour or more
in Voortrekker street
the traffic decreases
until silence falls over the city
and in the dull blue sky
for another while the sun hangs high.

A swarm of doves turn in their flight,
at the schools boys are still playing rugby,
some girls are just finished with netball
when the first cars of parents
are there to pick them up

before the sun does stick out
its last fingers over the Magaliesberg Mountain
when patches of long shadows do cover everything,
while twilight suddenly falls,
as the evening star and moon
do both hang bright
and it's the end of another day
while above me the Milky Way glitters
in all of its beauty.