, In Rudi’s Lap Poem by Louise Tredoux

When I started jumping up and down,
shouting and crying, a temper tantrum
par excellence, Rudi allowed me time
to express my feelings, then made me
sit down and tell him what it was about

I explained how I hated it when I wrote
an article and red-pen toting editors
changed everything just for the hell
of it, simply because they preferred
a different vocabulary, he laughed

Said I should publish somewhere else,
a place where freedom abounds, where
I can be myself, I thought about that, the
place where I can be myself is in Rudi’s
lap, so I climbed on to him and said

This is the place where I want to be, I’ll
save my manuscripts for later, maybe
future generations will be able to accept
my wild vocabulary, he smiled, quite
content with the course of events…