The True Stories That My Mother Did Tell (Refrain Stanza Sequence) Poem by Gert Strydom

Of a leopard that pounced upon my great-grandfather as a beast from hell
my mother did many true hair-raising stories to us as children tell,
how with a mere folding knife he did loose fingers but did it overcome,
the old people believed of witchcraft at the swamp and it was gruesome,
how a baboon left excrement in the chimney to try the people to expel,
how as a policeman her uncle Koos did to the house of a murderer race,
his weighty partner shouted: "more men are coming, " at that place
and how the criminal handed himself over as he was frightened by the yell,
my mother did many true hair-raising stories to us as children tell

of my uncle Koos with a Lee-Medford on the porch when they were gone
(where the members of my family to me as heroes do live on)
where with old bullets from the Boer-war at the dairy he took aim
how the rifle kicked him and for damage he was to blame
where his mischief left a hole in the dairy's wall of stone
and as jewels I hold onto the stories of the history of my family,
which tells me how they and I do fit into life and they become real to me,
how my grandfather Danie Brand fought in a war that the British had won,
where the members of my family to me as heroes do live on,

where Grandfather Danie as a boy did return with blisters on his hand
and it comes from him to in honour and respect take a stand,
where the barrel of the rifle did burn him to leave a huge scar
but as in our own bush-war that he felt in vain was every war,
where grandfather Danie with the breaking of his pipe acted grand
where he was embarrassed by smoking in another's house he did dare
and more for the man where he was buying cattle did care,
where he respected every citizen and also the ground and the land
and it comes from him to in honour and respect take a stand.
© Gert Strydom