Poetry

In the evenings I am sometimes afraid
 
In the evenings I am sometimes scared
and also for a spider and a snake
but when God is with me
then there is nothing that can catch me
 
and the leopard hanging over the cupboard
is just a blanket in the light of the room
and when at night I lay longing
and even when I feel like shaking
 
I know that a angel
with a flaming sword stands at my side,
that nothing can pass him
and after each evening’s pray
I lay peacefully in my bed.
 
*
 
 
Some children
 
Some children are strong
and others are clever
but you my child are wonderful
and is someone special to me.
 
Some parents brag with their jobs
and others climb out of the most beautiful cars
but I know that God does just borrow everything
to each one of us.
 
*
 
 
I hear the rain falling outside
 
I hear the falling rain patter
against the windows
and smell the odour rising from the dust
while the drops are thudding down
 
and when I see a lightning-bolt
it is burnt into my inner eye
and I know that I serve a God
with mighty things in His hand
 
and wonder from where the colours come
when the storm clouds disappear
and a rainbow appears suddenly?
Are those colours also from Him?
 
*
 
 
This morning I am ill with a cold
 
This morning I am ill with a cold
en and its the marriage of Jackal and wolf
because the sun is shining while the rain is falling
and blue-white thunders resound one after the other
and I see the rain shining in dashes
and wonder what God is thinking about this scene?
 
*
 
 
Sometimes I hear our cat purr
 
Sometimes I hear our cat purr,
how the dog thuds down nearby
and wonder if a worldwide peace is about to start
when even dogs and cats
can love each other at times.
 
*
 
 
When mother came back from the hospital
 
When mother came back from the hospital
daddy had to pay a lot
and I wonder what it all did cost
to get and brother and sister from there
but then I heard from the minister
that every human being is priceless to God.
 
*
 
 
My baby brother
 
My baby brother
do not want to talk or laugh
or even sit or walk
and he is only crying and screaming
all of the time
where he is laying
and I wonder
what he wants?
And if God does know
what the matter is with him?
 
*
 
 
One evening something terrible happened
 
One evening something terrible happened
when as only a four year old child
a schoolteacher had torn the curtains away
where I was laying on my bed.
 
He was writing on the wall
and told me to read
while he was glaring at me
and full of fear
 
I looked at the cane in his hand
that was coming down on my small cars
causing them to scatter away
and suddenly I was totally dumbstruck
 
but when I opened my eyes
my mother was at my side:
“Wakeup my child,
we have got to get you ready
for your first day at the nursery school.”
 
*
 
 
When the chameleon saw a fly
 
When the chameleon saw a fly
he attentively watched him
where camouflaged chameleon
was clinging to his branch
 
and suddenly his tongue did shoot out
and to where the fly did disappear
you can guess.
 
*
 
 
I am totally astounded
 
I am totally astounded
about the things that are sprouting
from the ground,
over every pretty little bean
and every beautiful flower
 
and I wonder how everything
did come to life,
if God did make
the flowers and plants so wonderful?
 
*
 
 
This morning a chicken egg did break open
 
This morning a chicken egg did break open
and a small chicken did put its head out of the shell
and I was astonished
to see it coming out chirping
and when I did learn that chickens do lay eggs
nobody could tell me
which of the chicken or the egg
originally did come first
but I know that people
do forget that God is the creator.
 
*
 
 
Stormy weather
 
I thought that only fire come out the of the mouths of dragons
but when somebody told me that a dragon lives in the clouds
I was totally astonished
and I wonder if he maybe was mistaken
as there is an electric spark
that jumps from the clouds
and no dragon or a strange thing.
 
*
 
 
Hail
 
One morning white hard wet corns dropped upon me
while the thunder was flashing in the distance
and I wonder if the hail canon of a giant
goes off there high up in the sky
when those corns did hit me
and was falling everywhere around
 
but my dad did tell me later
that rain and hail are stored away in God’s treasure trove
and that they bring growing power to the earth.
 
*
 
 
The mole
 
I see an animal that looks cosily
peeping out of a mole hole
and when it disappears under the ground
I wonder to where it’s sneaking
 
but grandpa says that moles do avoid
ground that are mixed with dung
and that he gets no trouble with the moles
and I wonder what the moles are doing
deep down in their tunnels?
 
*
 
 
The falcon
 
There is a dot turning high up in the sky
and I wonder if it’s maybe a crow
while carefully I am watching
the thing high up in the blue
and when a falcon comes down as quick as lightning
I hear the chickens screaming anxiously
and some do fall upside down
and the dogs try to tear the bird out of the air
where it’s hanging for just another moment.
 
*
 
Mosquitoes
 
It’s a strange feeling
when a swarm of mosquitoes
like a squadron of stuka bombers
turn circling above your head
and it then feels as if a war has been declared
when you try to slap them but miss,
when you want to kill all of them
before they come landing
and make a target of you
and you are chasing them with hands clapping.
 
My mother says that a person can push them dead
but I find it difficult when they speed away
and their buzzing shrilly are cursing me
while I am chasing them up an down
and almost dare my own life to destroy them
and try and slap them into the naught
with thundering slap upon thundering slap
and if you want to spray the simple things with poison
you may poison yourself
by breathing the poison in
 
and then there is the fact
that as any other thing in nature
the mosquitoes are necessary
for the survival
of an organism or a fish.
 
*
 
When I go to grandma
 
(for Suné Strydom)
 
When I go to grandma
there is always something that she gives to me
and I turn her around my little finger
while I ride on her back as if she is a horse,
as grandma loves me dearly.
 
My grandma is becoming very old,
does tell me about the loving Lord Jesus,
sometimes hits me on my buttocks
while I am trying to stop her with my hands
and that mischief I will never try again!