Gert Strydom (03 April 1964 / Johannesburg, South Africa)

There are clouds that hang
silver-grey in the air,
before the winter sun
gives its first rays
of a drawling day.

Silver-grey the Monday starts
and while the day’s hours
pass much to slowly,
I am summoned to the old chief
with his silver-grey hair.

One of the women clerks
who wants to be boss,
wants to push a silver knife
into a colleges back.

I leave them alone to count their silver pounds
and wash my hands in the bathroom,
with a silver ray of water that squirts out of the tap.