How Is Possible That Dreams Here Are Broken? (In Answer To Fanie Olivier) Poem by Gert Strydom

How is possible that dreams here are broken,
with life suddenly becoming threatening
with black criminals attacking, sneaking in at doors
and every home is barred like a fortress?

From every alleyway a drug peddler peeps out
or there’s a street whore
that patrols up and down at the corner
and I am just another white Afrikaner

that see my country is falling apart,
I hear shots being fired at the child’s school
where car hijackers suddenly strike
and numerous crimes are being committed

and no crying bird have got to warn me
about the new upside-down existence,
that every strange black man may be a criminal or terrorist
while jobless I worry about bread for my table

and it’s no war zone or the border that I am visiting
but raping robbers strike at the home on the corner
where the police later ineptly
gather with numerous cars.

[Reference: “grensbesoek” (border visit) by fanie olivier.]