If You Come To Stay With Me Poem by Gert Strydom

If you come to stay with me
I will share my secrets with you;
I will be showing you things that can stay with you in memory:

the black-collard barbet that get seeds from me,
playing around here in the window.
If you come to stay with me

you will see the breeze blowing through the pink hollyhocks
swishing them to and thro and caressing them with love;
I will be showing you things that can stay with you in memory:

like doves caressing each other in the pepper tree
charming each other undisturbed and breeding.
If you come to stay with me

and we get hold of each other
love will not be something that separates us;
I will be showing you things that can stay with you in memory:

I will build a world around you and me
where I can steal your heart
and if you come to stay with me
I will be showing you things that can stay with you in memory