Verneukpan (Desolate Love) Poem by Steve Coetzee

We drove on and on
in the car together, alone.
Feelings once had, gone
lost all once known.

Our destination in view
the white desolation, us.
Words none or few
on we drove thus.

Found the sign:
Verneukpan - Campbell's track
(1929)
some tires in a stack.

On our backs we lie,
nothing above
only empty sky
reflecting empty love.

Horizons far and curved,
bleakness all around.
Nothing to be observed,
absolute silence, no sound.

Stillness all around
outside, inside.
We speak, no sound
feelings hide.

Sun slowly sinking
behind vermilion skies
each in solitary thinking
remembering the lies.

The radiant sunset,
the grandeur seen
as when first we met
as life should have been

In the gathering dusk,
the gathering twilight,
the love but a husk
slowly sinking into night.

Note: written about a trip in the 90's before
Verneukpan became popular. The name means swindle
as was our love.