My Ex-Mother In Law Poem by Gert Strydom

My ex-mother in law
was an unusual person
that could wish others
into death

and when my ex-wife’s
first husband died from cancer
she believed
that the Lord God
answered her prayer

and for me
she also prayed a thousand times
that same prayer
and fasted
and put tears with it
although I didn’t really
deserve it,
but here I am still
and it’s another story.

Her husband
falls down on the golf course
and is dead from a heart attack
and he hits his last ball
away into the bushes
without any control.

At the funeral
I had to help carry the coffin,
wash dishes
and what ever
my mother in law asked.

Father in law
had a small black dog
that went everywhere with him
and smoked pipe
like Van Donck
cannot stoke up on table mountain
and the dog
then also had to die
although it was great in health
and could still live for years.

I had to take mother in law
to the vet
as she couldn’t drive a car
and hold the animal
while he got
a last injection
and dig a grave
in the garden
and put him there.

l’Envoi
Now I wonder
what goes into such a person
that after her husband’s death,
she is finished
with every thing of his
and married
in months again
with somebody
to keep her company?