The Tikoloshe (Italian Sonnet) Poem by Gert Strydom

(in answer to S. Ignatius Mocke)

He is a thing that sneaks around at night
and he is a myth that do children scare,
as they do for sleep and for bed prepare,
some describe him as a mere water-sprite,

but he does in killing females delight.
Most modern people do not about him care
and from grim tales people are of him aware
while he does always remain out of sight.

In the veldt and in the tall knee-high grass,
his presence and his image nobody sees,
as he does contact with most people evade
but at night he does so secretively pass,
is hiding behind bushes and thorny trees,
and of him the dogs are very afraid.
[Reference: "Ballade van die nagtelike besoeker" (Ballad of the nightly visitor) by S. Ignatius Mocke.]