In The Grey-Land Of A Wasted World Poem by Gert Strydom

(after T. S. Eliot)

I In the winter of life

To me no other month is as cruel
as August when the winter wind
blows away everything,
when the air is full of dust
and it feels if never again
there will be another spring
when the lack of rain
has turned the grasses dead,
when like skeletons
the trees stand reaching up to the sky

and the black frost has killed
the rest of the flowers and plants
that was still living
and there is an icy chill in everything

where you come to me girl
with the laughter, the sureness of a woman
that is bringing with her the new life of spring
with your hands brown of the dust of the garden
where you were planting new seedlings,
do come to me with lips raised for many kisses
and I neither here nor there
was a part of life but also as if dead
unconscious to it
as if you were only a part of a dream.


II About the things in the past and that are to come

In a caravan in the open park
to where the circus does usually come
I found a gypsy woman in a caravan
who wanted to tell me the truth,
as she does see it
about the past and about what
the future does hold,

she wanted money of which I did not have a lot,
took both of my hands in hers which were soft
turned them over, traced the lines on both of my hands,
talked about love that has come and went,
about the joys of a sexy female companion
that was on the verge of the future,
about poetry and the depth of it,
about travel to distant lands
and her words to me was mere probability
about things that could and could not be

and suddenly the magic ball,
the lamp through which she does see the future
did light up on its own
and started flashing as if it
was calling her,
insisting her to look at it
and to see
but she ignored it as if
it could wait to later,

took out a pack of Tarot-cards
and shuffled them again and again
while she said to me to draw some out of the pack
which was upside down

I drew out six at different places,
gave them all to her
and the first, which she turned over
was death
and she stiffened talked about the death
of the leader of this country,
about death of people in the world,
next was the Day of Judgment
and I did think nothing of it
while she smiled at the lovers
as if her previous prediction was coming true
but shook her head at the fool (also called a madman)
where I did only believe in reality and logic
and nothing could bring madness to it,
the cards of the tower and the sun did follow.

"This is very interesting. It's about a future that goes out
to the leader of this struggling country,
to the entire world, " she said while she was concentrating.
"The end of the world, the Judgement Day and the new City
with a place for everyone under the Sun of righteousness, "
I did joke along and my words did greatly trouble her.

The moment that I had left the gypsy
that visit did really begin to trouble me
as I did remember stern warnings
that my mother did give me as a child
which she got out of her old black Bible
about not visiting a person who does divination,
or an observer of times
as this is an abomination to the Lord God.


III A attack on the United States of America

Later in September it was if some truth had come
to some of her words:

Shocking is death where it comes almost by chance,
where it has an impact in man's normal existence
and where people that did only want to travel,
others where only busy with there normal work,

while sly plans did bring everything to a hellish destruction
with aeroplanes full of normal people
who against their will do fly crashing
into two tower-blocks,
at other places do just plunge to the earth,
do burn and explode
and two buildings do on too many people
burn, crumble and disintegrate,

where these buildings were skyscrapers
made out of glass, concrete and steel
and they do become a gigantic burial ground,

where these things do disconcert the entire world
and it does change from what it was
as if it never again can change back

and the whole world
does slowly but certainly get a aversion
to every Muslim,
as if everyone is responsible for the acts
of those people of the same faith
who do kill innocent people

and somewhere religious fanatics do smile
where they are wishing each other well
over the unbelievers that had been annihilated
in the name of a god called Allah
and do forget that they did ravage,
break and destroy totally innocent people

and the people who did die
were faithful children
of the omnipotent Lord God,
that they did not want to bring harm to anybody,
that the Lord God holds His hand over the earth
and that every act is recorded
for His great Day of Judgement that is coming.


IV The great chess game

Leading riders on black motorbikes swish past
with flashing red lights
over the crossing of Arabat street
where rows of lamp-poles
tower with golden round lights,
small black Powédas
with men of the Federal Security Service
follow short on their heels
before the bullet-proof Zil
that is big and black glides past.

Men from the CIA in two black
American Chryslers
follow at a distance
while they make jokes
about the people in the Zil
who in their opinion
is on the way to a dacha
to enjoy bodily pleasure
with each other
and the two cars take an off ramp
to drive back to the American embassy
from where they did come.

In the background the big Kremlin palace fades away
along with a building of which the golden domes gleam
while the small convoy takes the ring road,
and the general does sit smiling backward,
the skirt of his young companion
does shift up to her lovely upper leg
and the glance in her dark-brown eyes
are dedicated to him,
(as a person would expect)
and yet somewhat amused.

The man suddenly smiles at that,
although the people in the West think
that they had drawn the tooth of Russia
the chess game does go on,

submarines do still sneak through the depths of the ocean,
with their nuclear explosive heads aimed as previously
on New York, Washington, Los Angeles
and other cities of the American continent,
at cities in Europe
and even on the Southern point of Africa

with aircraft standing ready for a attack,
missiles of which other countries are unaware
and day after day
the game is set anew
and the waiting does continue
for the attack command.

The small convoy
leaves the highway,
disappears into a secret military base,
into a place where the end of the lives
of billions of people
could start within moments.


V Drought

In the hot sun
the blades of three windmills turn
like beggars crouching
on their knees to the ground
praying for another drop

and on top the wind
is pillaging the earth
blowing up huge
clouds of dust
ripping the last leaves from trees
that stand like skeletons
on the plains of the great Karoo

where thirsty sheep, are frail,
thinned out and bleating
for something to drink,
for even thorny shrubs to eat

and in the church the local farmers
are praying for rain
while the godless remain
at the local bar
and are drowning
the heat with countless numbers
of bottles of beer

and the sky remains a darker hue of blue
until some of the animals smells it
and light is flickering in white stripes
in the distance on the far horizon
and suddenly the sky
is covered with clouds
and buckets full of rain
start pouring down
and religious men and the godless
dance cheering in the streets.


VII If you are a real romantic

then you do believe that someone special does exist
and within a five minutes you can meet, look at and glance at
a special person in a crowd, can experience something indescribable
when you do make eye contact in just a mere moment,
when that other person's soul does open to you
in only a tiny bit of a second and this is not flirting,
just an experience between the two of you
that is irreplaceable and true, and you do know that destiny
can hold much more in the unforeseen future
and within a half of an hour you might know that this is love
and although you may never see that person ever again
or know him or her or even a name or address
you do cherish that perfect untouchable moment
and it takes a lifetime to forget that person

but here you and I are
two people that have come to love one another
and all the moments that we do share
are just as special and wonderful as this
while we together want to venture
into the unknown future
do want to cherish our love,
do want to experience
the sheer magic of a single kiss
do want to have sexual bliss
and while we do live far apart
our love and friendship does daily
go stronger and stronger
while a life of sheer tenderness
and flaming true-life passion does wait.


VII The destruction of the black bull

The time will come
when the great black bull is killed
by own behavior,

the time will come when the black bull
do self-destruct
where by many coupling it is infected,

without ancestral ghosts appearing
at the fire light or a demon
walking in the dead of night

and no one will be
like a tikoloshe or a zombie,
like a walking idiot doll

when that bull does crash thundering down
and its last breath will fall
being nothing more than a puff of air

and a chilling silence will then
envelope the continent,
will be falling from end to end

and the dying will not be caused
by any white people
or the power that they no longer do hold

and no betrayal will cause this destruction,
but it will be self-inflicted, from its life style
from the culture that it cherishes and holds.


IX The wilderness

No falling of the bones of witchcraft,
no thunder that enchanting does come down

can bring rescue
from the tide that circles in like the sea

as chaos has been loosened
without anybody worrying about the cost of it

and thousands maybe millions
of foreign shoes

do stream in constantly
to start a new life right here

and foreign criminals are on the street,
do everywhere stand talking in small groups

where overnight I and my nation have become third rate citizens
and the government do rape our rights

where the black foreigners are rated higher
and they try to bring us to poverty with all of their power

to the place where I am on my knees,
where my prayers do go up to the omnipotent Lord God

to bring salvation in a time of oppression,
for His works to circle out over all of Africa

as my country has become a wilderness
in which my people and I are not welcome.


X On each and every day

On each and every day
I call on God to hear me,
to listen to my pleadings
and try to find Him in the silences
where I am struggling
as if against a solid wall of rock
and it sometimes feels as if my prayers
do not go any further than the ceiling,
as if my life,
my daily struggle is in vain
and yet daily sunshine, thunder and rain
comes falling over me and still I am wrestling,
struggling with the Almighty One
who is always here and never gone
as if constantly I am only living in my iniquity,
yet daily I do some of his blessings see
do turn back and do fight the struggle against sin,
and open my heart where He does enter in.

[Poet's note and reference: Winter in the Southern hemisphere is in opposite months from that in the Northern hemisphere of the earth. In the Southern hemisphere winter is in the months of June, July and August. "The Waste Land" by T. S. Eliot.]

© Gert Strydom