You Played With A Hero Character Poem by Gert Strydom

You played with a hero character
and I cannot remember if it was Superman
of GI Joe
and your younger brother
had a monster or a beast
maybe a dragon or Minotaur
which both of you used to throw
in to the plants
creeping up against the garage wall.

Then one day suddenly
it appeared on the top floor
of the apartment where we lived
and I do not know which character it was
which flung my shirts, pants, suits,
pairs of shoes and ties
down from the sixth floor
screaming at me to go.

I went up to fetch the rest
of my belongings and it was a beast
for sure
that almost assaulted me
(who was your Mommy giving a show)
and tried to destroy
every thing that I owned.

I shouldn’t have let her crawl
back into my heart,
or visit me with that old green car,
and there and then
we should have parted for good

but I loved you both
as if you were my own blood
and she was the light of my morning,
my afternoon and darkest night
and I tried desperate
to make our relationship work
toiling on it for years

and the character kept returning
growing more powerful
as time went by
and I never really knew
what I had let myself in
until I saw its full fury
and had wasted years
and all of my savings
totally in vain.