Poetry

Kosi Bay Snorkelling

1989

Balmy waters flowing from skin to toe

Small effort yes, but so immersed

Buoyed up, surface skimming

Snorkel breathing, mask and pipe

Tight view apprehending:

Iridescent greens and purples in refracted light

Fish dart left and right

In quiet clusters without fright.

It is so clear in all dimensions

The bodies float and flow between

Not least for

Me to feast and unfurl that girl

Swimming past within me

Heineken, Dikes

Oudvossermeer Holland 1986

Not quite at ease. Yes, to cycle

Here and where you please,

To look at newness with eyes

And those precast for you.

A little moment in the afternoon,

When those sleep who plan to set your moon:

Just slip out upon the dike, with the bike

And a box you like.

Soft Northern grass hosts the release

Of folded elbow and of knees.

The barges float past, the sailors sail

The body sinks in without travail

Time suspended, horizon upended.

Sales Pack Carl with Jan and Me

Braitex Atlantis, Western Cape 2020

Why do this

And also, why not?

It is based on a decision, not on a plot:

To try to untie a big fat knot

With Covid lockdowns and Zooms

We set off trying to look tougher,

Springs sales Pack in hand,

To make Carl an offer.

The Constantia gaited cute village

Made us feel we were out on a pillage.

We met with the man whose face was a pan

With eyes as cold as a fish.

Having done our due diligence, we said good riddance

And crossed the Cape Flats once more.

(PS I think he had a Jaguar up his arse)

Z Plasty

Helderberg Hospital 2018

Take on what you must, but not too much

Always: primum non nocere.

But if harm is already done…what then?

Prepare- or in German Vorbereiten,

Bereite dich vor

that is: prepare yourself before you prepare yourself:

Call a colleague, read a Handbook, Google a chart, YouTube a procedure.

Draw, rehearse, delineate, prepare.

The appointment date came

The procedure was booked

Good woman appeared in calm

Position the drapes, the head, the light

Assistant swab the site, ready gloves and swabs

Insert the lidocaine and adrenaline mix

Mark the lines of incision

Prepare the instruments

Wait till the anaesthesia works

Go straight Z lines, undermine the tissues

Release the flap, student swab blood.

Move to correct apex to position

Suture edge to edge. Swab dry and wait

Stand back and appraise, do final sutures

Cover up dressing for wound,

Analgesics, follow up date

Kevin Williams Trapped in calf-feeder

Sea Point Waterfront and HRF 2015

Walking Long strides, fresh strides-

The Atlantic surge cracked waves

Of salty spray upon the bulwark.

Dodge and run and be refreshed in the Sun.

A call upon the cellularphone-

what is this?

We are not alone.

A distraught Farm Foreman my man:

Calls: if at all help I can?

“Upon the field he himself begat

With Kevin Williams the bull so fat:

His head stuck in a calf crib I’ll tell you that.

Enraged and entwined, the bull out of his mind

Raises cage and steel as if he were blind.

With a shake and a push, you’d hope he gets loose,

With a twist of the head, he is out of the noose.”

And a sigh of relief there was no more grief,

We could end the talk

And continue the walk

The Sick One in a Storm

Bethesda Hospital, Ubombo 1990

Thunder cracked as the storm hit Tshanene.

A ward in full darkness all children asleep

Save, this one in trouble, lamp lighting the scene

The nurse, knew her cue, now the Dr is due

The only hope is a free-flowing drip

Was a vein to be found?

Arms swollen; legs bruised

Last call on the forehead

So, shave the sparse hair

Tap tissue and temple

In the hope of some blue

Faint, faint but true

Steady the hand and push it through.

Refluxing blood, relief is in you.

Now fix it and run it

And let the work do its might

For death in the morning is a terrible sight.

The Swim

Strand Beach 2010

The Azure blue crest furled invitingly

A sand reef raised the swell six by three

My swim trunks only and that was me

It lured, that fall, that curl that foam

An apex of water is not like loam

Propelled by eagerness I’m that sea to roam

Whitewater line rolling like a vast army

With speed and force moves a tsunami

Immersed salt streaked arms breath calmly

Rearing up like a wall, the colossus rose

Water moves without wanting to impose

It crushed upon me, the worst of foes

Broiling and roiling as a miasmic mound

A fluid in motion is all gravity, no sound

Had me jumbled, tumbled and pinned to the ground

Now calmly assembling and soft surface space

The molecules move and shift with a pace

Lungs bursting, head crying, to the sky I must race

The sun still there, the beach and the sand

The ocean rolls up to merge with the land

Legs pull to full height; God, Nature is Grand