A Ray Of Sunlight Poem by Gert Strydom

It was in the middle of the day
and the sun was high and bright,
in the deep blue African sky.

The LMG was getting heavy
and hot in my hands
and gnats were turning
round the piece of grass
in my brown bush hat.

Sweat were running
down my face
and like any other day,
a patrol in the hot
African bush was great fun
especially when your water
bottle was near empty
and your throat started to burn
and the going was fast.

The bushman tracker
was hot on the enemy spoor
and where the terrain
got more open,
we halted for a moment.

a Ray of sunlight
reflected bright like a flash light,
somewhere to the left
and pointed out an enemy ambush.

We half circled past
and attacked from their rear
and the LMG stuttered
from my hip
and suddenly the bush was clear
and the firefight was over
and an ominous silence hanged
deep in the African bush.

[Reference: = LMG= Light machine gun. Spoor=Track]