EXODUS - disquieting poem on leaving SA contributed by American Poet

EXODUS

contributed by American Poet - Scot Rossin - 2011

We've got to leave this place

he said

the gov hereabouts

is corrupt and doesn't give a damn

thieves and murderers wielding through the land

high and low

small matter should they wear khaki or rags

when one wakes to hear a window rattling

a door jimmied

the scuttling of ransack

the serrated whisper of your throat being cut

the blood of babies

to the bland backbeat bass

of official reassurance

 The Hebrews had Moses

of course

and a bush of blood and thunder whispering in his ear

 the wilderness beckoning 

forty years of manna raining down

the pesky army of Pharaoh

safely tsunamied

 


We've only the net

Arguments abound

sins of the pioneer fathers

reaping what was sown

apartheid

bloody politicians

inexorable march of history and consequence

ah

let us bicker in the parlor

sound the details

amid the tides of rationalization

the consuming wash of entitlement

voices rising

as the garden outside explodes in flame

No

sad truth

one day

one laces up the old traveling boots

the day after the yard sale

says a loving goodbye

to the loveless land 

 heaves oneself to the airport

to bound up and away

regret and optimism 

 atumble in one's breast

as the beautiful countryside below

recedes and recedes

as does heartbreak