Poetry

My FriendMy friend the tree
May fling his arms
In any twisted
Way
But the leaves
Still chase the sun
(Previously unpublished; 1979)

HandsThe steady beat of blood and life
Course through strong square hands
These instruments of man can
Hold each other
In silent prayer or
Kill with plunging knife
They can mold the supple clay of the mind
And in turn the mind’s clay, now hardened
In times course
Transmits its experience back to the hands that
Holds the brush and mixes the paints
Of life’s experience
(First Printed in the Christian Bothers College Pretoria Annual,1978)


Seven
A part of me is still seven
Holding hands in a queue at the
Odeon on Saturday morning

A part of me is still seven
Sharing a Nougat bar with you when
the lights go down for the matinee

A part of me is still seven
Watching the usher shining
her torch and trying to quiet
the rowdy boys during the trailers

A part of me is still seven
Playing cowboys and crooks in
your garden corner house on the hill

A part of me is still seven
Getting beaten-up by Steven
because he liked you too

A part of me is still seven
Planting a tree with the
headmaster at the entrance to school

A part of me is still seven
Stealing a chaste kiss before
going home

Apart of me
Is
still
(unpublished; 2006)