artefact
or: potent symbol
– some distance
from the compost heap
where the tiniest bits
of green
sprout
its trigger
cool as nails(or as chilled words)
caressed by slithering worms
in the corner
a kind of centrepiece
a magnetic
tree
shading
a small area
just a house
a relic
– suburban flagship
of
so many meetings
so many bolt-holes
in so many
places
so many
nocturnal
rendezvous
a house
strangely seeded,
turned
'intriguing'
by an old gun
the soothsayer
(cutely lying)
says madiba’s gun
remains cocked
for the pan africanist
this item’sthe incendiary seed
from which
the new revolution
will rise
the capitalists
ever looking
for safe havens
want to knowhow much
it’s worth
– they scan
the near horizon
of
the auctioneer’s
pages
by Frank Andrew
