Let Me Tell About Wouter Poem by Gert Strydom

Let me tell about Wouter
standing against all wars
and who didn’t want to go
to a military camp.

He then got
three years jail sentence
and with a criminal record
he went
to the detention barracks
where the colonel said:

“Wouter you are a naughty boy
and I will get you right quickly,
if you want to stay alive in this camp.”

First he had to scrub lavatories
in pace
with the marching stick
hitting holes out of his hands
and suddenly stand straight to attention
when his task was completed.

He was grabbed and forced naked
into a cold shower
where they wanted to scrub him clean
of his faith
with scrubbing wire and a mop
and he didn’t
wrestle or kick
and didn’t stop believing
in his faith.

On command he was taken
to a instructor
that had to teach him
things about a gun.

“I know that you have no faith, ”
he said to him
because he believed differently
and when he didn’t want
to touch the gun
the corporal opened
his own pants
and pulled his own dingeling out
and pressed both in his face.

At a time he came under the boot
and still it didn’t strip him
of what he believed
and after three years of hell
he was free
in his country
where people really believed in God.

Still I wonder in my soul
and when I faced the enemy
with guns and tanks
who was the most brave
between him and me
and still I cannot get
Wouter out of my thoughts

and I wonder what God
thinks in his heaven
about a army
that gives pain
to people that are different
and when I get on my knees
I pray for both Wouter and me


[Reference: i sing of Olaf glad and big by e.e. Cummings.]