Experiences During War
I
When this evening comes between us
and outside the rainstorm fall pattering,
with thunder reporting like cannon shot
let tranquillity find us then
and let us go away from the world in this holy hour
with joy and peace and endless longing
and let the suffering and pain disappear,
let us then take the best out of this short time
and let our lives come past the turning-point
while the war for others goes on
and even if we are wordless
let our bodies meet in flesh and blood,
let we find some internal joy
before we have to greet each other again.
II
Before we have to greet each other again,
when the alarm clock reaches eleven o’clock,
I know that this might be the last time together
while I have got to go to Waterkloof military airfield.
In the distance lightning bolts come down exploding,
when you dropp me at the gates to parachute into enemy territory,
to go back to Angola,
in a region where the enemy swarms about like a nest of wasps.
Scouts have to do target acquisition for howitzer guns,
for the heavy artillery that shoot over many miles,
in the distance the aircraft waits with its bat shape
and some fear is in my stomach while the gate guard calls an officer.
Later I breathe through a mask, with equipment strapped to me,
here one feels rather like a machine than a human being.
III
Here one feels rather like a machine than a human being
when day after day you are with the same people,
have to do the same duties,
cursing your live
on the border at times,
while you receive parcels that you do not expect or deserve,
while the relationship with your girlfriend changes to a big maybe
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poem by Gert Strydom
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