Sketch

Last night was the first thunder
of spring, and we unplugged everything

although the shudders did not last.
The Arums are out on the pass, and in East London

steadfast Strelitzias are clashing
colours with the Kafirbooms’

coral clusters
so serenely South African and beloved.

Spring is here: people drive
more daringly down the old Transkei Road,

hooting, impatient
with cautious ones,

zooting past, stopping,
replacing passengers;

and on a rock jutting out
of the thick, opaque green Nahoon River

scraggly cormorants spread
orphan wings to dry,

scaping a city
thoughtless, scraggly, serene, impatient

and somehow elementally without
mirrors.

                                        5th August 2014

-  Silke Heiss