Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Madiba's pistol

a rusted
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’s
the incendiary seed
from which
the new revolution
will rise

the capitalists
ever looking
for safe havens
want to know
how much
it’s worth
they scan
the near horizon
of
the auctioneer’s
pages

by Frank Andrew