Portal for Writers and Poets in South Africa
Once a boy was hatched.
Born with sonnet wings most heaven-sent –
Eased into planting.
Appalled by the world’s stage.
Tooth – radar splitting the hunt
Courage is exposed.
Brilliant inner sea –
His cry glides across the moon.
This mother tongue comforts me.
Ghost of a vision.
Every finger a stem –
Leaves antiques, tears sap.
Winter’s bone – a party’s birthday balloon
Summoning earth’s ripening –
Blades of pleasant grass.
Aloes from Bethelsdorp –
The green world’s-majority is not my home.
Only Goethe’s throne.
Mum’s June wedding lace.
Dad’s glove was lost at the church.
His Mrs. Dalloway.
There were her roses.
Granadilla hands in earth.
Ice lungs frozen. Night.
Dolls in childhood – dead
Things. Once attached to slippers.
Church. Girlhood friendships.
Origins of wives –
Daughters, girls. A dramatic gulf.
Ruined geraniums. Roasts.
