Ink, Bleach and Gold

 

east where sun rinses

colour from night,

the scene settles

in a tropic church -

cement floor

crop wilted in the yard.

 

women sit at a trestle

with sheets washed

black in Quinck ink.

masking plaster

sticks the page

at four corners

like an old photo.

 

dip ear buds

and paint jik figures -

square houses, goats,

Mpumalanga sun, a grave,

a van with a hospital cross,

a ripe mother mango smile,

a green mielie man,

a child rising, Lazarus

from a sick bed.

 

spell in symbols

care-giver nights and days.

a story old as ink

emerges in their art.

 

sun gold from the dark.

 

Dorian

March 08

 

Poems by Dorian Haarhoff