I have been grieving

for many years now

Karoo house lost

When I walked into the solidity of your

stone walls, high wooden ceilings

neglected wooden floors,

your silent fire place

the smell of rat poison in corners of abandoned rooms

opening the latch of the back door with the turn of a shining brass knob

polished by generations of hands

walking out into the sun-drenched garden

stretching way back to the hedge of pomegranate trees

bordered by the sanded-in irrigation ditch

the ancient gnarled plum tree

the  rickety arbor of sweet crystal grapes

the ever-flowering General Gallieni rose bush

the smooth trunks of white guava trees

the strangling purple bougainvillea

I saw in the Karoo-dust gliding in

the warm light falling

through high hatch windows

a new beginning

simple living

friends eating around a long yellowwood table

on the cool back stoep

the memories of ancestors

of stories told

I have been grieving

for many years now