Not With A Machinegun, But With A Pen (In Answer To Breyten Breytenbach) Poem by Gert Strydom

Not with a machinegun, but with a pen
I write this prayer
since Your might is greater than any weapon:

What am I able to tell You, Jesus Christ,
almighty Creator, God and upper Lord,
I who are only an Afrikaner in my forties,
since You know every thing, even before it happens
and there’s nothing that I can teach You.

How my country was taken away
by people who pray to ancestral spirits
(who probably are demons) ,
that a man with more than one wife
sit in the highest chair,

that I still pay taxes
when and where I have a job
and that it is difficult times
and work is very scarce
for a white man.

Would I have to tell about a government
that sings give me my machinegun
and a bullet for a Boer
and kill the farmer,
kill the white
as You know every thing.

That my people were disarmed
by the government
and by barbarians
are hacked into pieces
with panga-blades and axes
like you were sacrificed

and even in death
they are humiliated
by pulling their pants down
like You had to hang naked on the cross,

that women are raped
as if every white woman
is a sex slave
belonging to the hordes

that they still throw knucklebones
and think that it brings them invincibility
and freedom from blame.

l’Envoi
All that I am really asking
is that all of these deeds
and the things that they do, say and sing
go into the cup of Your wrath

and please help
my people and me
to serve You better
that the wide world
(like with our ancestors)
can see Your might and salvation.

[References: nie met die pen nie maar met die masjiengeweer by Breyten Breytenbach. Murder on Eugene Terreblance. Murder and violence on white people.]