Stront
After 600 miles across country
you couldn't have told
if Stront and me
were Dutch or Dinka.
"Stront", I'd said
when Zwonderland went up,
"leave the sack of skulls..."
but he heaved it into the back
and we set off round Lake Canterbury
towards the highlands.
At Rumbuck I negotiated
bandages and iodine
from a German nurse,
but that night
Stront's malaria came on bad.
I read him psalms and mopped his brow
but in the morning he was gone.
His ridgeback, Laura, moped
but not for long.
I stoned her off the body
and she ran. Stront
had the back seat then, his head
pillowed on the sack of skulls.
The dorps were mostly empty
we passed through,
but the wells were full.
The storeman at Hyena Creek
had lost his mind
but had sardines.
Last night
the bleak sound of firing
from beyond the mines
woke me from dreams of Breda,
or was it Eindhoven?
you couldn't have told
if Stront and me
were Dutch or Dinka.
"Stront", I'd said
when Zwonderland went up,
"leave the sack of skulls..."
but he heaved it into the back
and we set off round Lake Canterbury
towards the highlands.
At Rumbuck I negotiated
bandages and iodine
from a German nurse,
but that night
Stront's malaria came on bad.
I read him psalms and mopped his brow
but in the morning he was gone.
His ridgeback, Laura, moped
but not for long.
I stoned her off the body
and she ran. Stront
had the back seat then, his head
pillowed on the sack of skulls.
The dorps were mostly empty
we passed through,
but the wells were full.
The storeman at Hyena Creek
had lost his mind
but had sardines.
Last night
the bleak sound of firing
from beyond the mines
woke me from dreams of Breda,
or was it Eindhoven?
Page(s) 18
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