You Ask That I Must Again Turn Back (Free Verse Sonnet) Poem by Gert Strydom

(after Elisabeth Eybers)

You ask that I must again turn back with a gesture,
must go away from that which is safe and secure,
that I must accept changes in you and your family
and that everything does remain the same is no secret,
where you do expect that I have got to forget everything,
must come and face a similar lifelong barrage,
where I know of the breaking down of my humanity:
that your people do not even respect or regard me as a human being,
where you did bring about and speak out the end of our relationship
and then it was with you and your people's deeds night to me,
but now you do want that I break my intentions with someone else
as if there still remains something between us, you do expect:
that after all of this no change has come
and here I stand totally confused and astonished.

[Reference:"Sonnet.Al wat jy vra is net die klein gebaar" (Sonnet. All that you ask is only a small gesture)by Elisabeth Eybers.]