The Military Police Poem by Gert Strydom

One afternoon
just after returning from work
there was a knock on the front door

and three military policemen
with flat orange hats,
and orange arm flashes

demanded to come in
and wanted to search my place
as somebody had told them
that I was a friend of someone

for whom they had an arrest warrant
for not turning up to camp
and the simpletons thought
that I was hiding him.

Being in the citizens force,
I intensely disliked the military police
and knew that he was quite safe from them
and showed them the gate
which made them really angry,

but they were furious
when I told them that I knew
where to find him

and that they could go
to the local police station
where he was on duty.