The Herald Poem by Gert Strydom

At the subway whore upon whore chatters
where in fishnet-stockings they stand in a group,
a poor white beggar does sit on the porch of Meat Mecca
and in the street a black woman is busy feeding her baby,

while around her in the middle of the street people are dancing in a hubbub,
two streets further on a black pastor do pray where he is calling on God,
over his bullhorn he wants to call people to account
in the street rubbish bins and refuse bags lie thrown out in revolt

when a spectre figure comes at a slow pace on a pale-grey horse,
the horse throws its head while the horseman sits like a Boer general.
It can be Eugene Terreblance, Christiaan de Wet or Koos De la Rey,
the bustle does continue in disorder around him,
the horse comes to a halt and moved the man prays for a moment,
where he talks to the omnipotent Lord God without any fear.

He prays that God must heal the hatred and envy,
that his people once more must be self-reliant and free,
he prays for his country that clearly is falling apart,
that even in oppression God must open a way,
he even prays for the killer and the thief that does rob the innocent,
for those that do love each other and as spouses do make promises
as in everything around him there is tinned pleasure and great decay
and in a great bass voice he talks to the omnipresent Lord of the universe.

He says: "My Lord and my God I am here to fulfil Your will
as the iniquity of mankind has been uncovered."
He lifts his hand with a sword in it and a quarter of the county falls,
a quarter of the whole world is destroyed while gunshots do resound,
famine, epidemic annihilation and animals of prey are taking their toll
and its clear that the world is going to its end,
that death does fallow short on his commands.

When he rides further along the main road his horse is on a gallop,
there are lines of fire that the horseshoes do draw out of the tar,
everyone that hears and do notice him are astonished,
all the parties and the normal passage of life is stopped,

black people call to their ancestral spirits loudly,
others take serious decisions and do turn their lives around
and they feel unmasked in the days of youth and old age
while it feels as if God is again knocking at the doors of their hearts

and many are joyous and very happy
when the horseman and his horse do ride away into eternity.