Voices Talking In His Head Poem by Gert Strydom

Our host a painter
who ran a travel agency
to make a living
said that my normal voice
was much too loud
and that he could hear voices
talking in his head.

One of his paintings
was of stars
in the night sky
that looked to me
somewhat like the constellation
at Orion,
but he saw faces there
and when I looked carefully
there were faces
hidden among the bright lights.

He was searching
for deeper meaning
and his painting
was like something
that I had seen
by a schizophrenic painter
in my psychology book
where a park and houses
depicted a gigantic face
with gnawing teeth.


More weird to me
was the dressed shop mannequin
that sat in a chair
which he addressed in speech
every now and then
as if it was a person
that was there.