THE S.A. CONNECTION |
|
Hope you all enjoyed Rod's
birthday piece on Frank yesterday - I know I certainly did. Todays poem is a special one for me - I grew up in Durban and it was in that city
that I bought my first McKuen album and attended Rod's concert when he toured this country
in 1975. I naturally went to both of the Durban shows! Wonder if he realised that
the kid in the second row would one day be running his web site?
The extraordinary thing about "Balloon Two: Durban,
South Africa" is how Rod managed to capture the feel of the area and its people.
There are one helluva lot of chicken farms in Natal and nowhere else but in South
Africa will you hear someone say "I threw it with a stone". Ask Johan Grobbelaar
- and Rod!
Enjoy another little taste of Africa!
- Ken, Johannesburg, December 13 |
BALLOON TWO: Durban, South Africa |
|
Six A.M.
the chase truck's
out of fuel.
Never mind
we'll still be in the sky
by sunrise.
Seven and we're up.
Low hills first
and then the green trees
a farmer shouts come down
and have a cup of tea
as on we sail.
Now a village
and the natives scatter.
We wave and bravely
they shout back,
hang on
while we slip
slowly down
to top the trees.
Bumping, scraping
feather-like
the topmost branches.
You let loose
a Texas rebel yell.
Eight.
The morning sky
is now red diamonds
and as many different shapes
and sizes
as the sectioned fields.
We'll skim the lake
at left and just ahead,
or set down in the meadow
just below that far brown knoll.
Not now.
A little higher first,
a little farther yet
surely something lies beyond, beyond,
beyond.
Look!
The chase truck's catching up.
Fire up again.
Beyond that grove
of blossoming trees
we'll lose it.
Stand still, look up
then scatter
over half a dozen acres.
Three white birds below us
pay no attention
as our shadow scrapes them
like a passing cloud.
Not quite nine.
Two fuel tanks still unused
we can sail straight through
The Valley of a Thousand Hills
and not come down till noon.
The trees we're topping now
have only tops.
Above
the slightly superstitious sun
plays hide and seek
but warms us anyway.
The day is opening
now hills beyond
the front hills
show themselves
as we come near.
Cane fields
stretch out
along the left
on the right side
chicken farms
and chicken
farms.
Unexpectedly,
more clouds ahead.
A black girl running
down
the road
hides behind
the sugar stalks
peering at this aberration
in the sky
confident that she
can spy on us
and not be seen.
We let her keep her secret
and wonder what she'll tell
her unbelieving friends.
Hau! Did you see?
Men looking,
but they couldn't find me.
They fly in painted egg
they cook it
light the fire.
Hau! A big egg.
In many colors.
Hau! In the sky!
I threw it with a stone.
Hau! Egg run away.
A startled springbok
leaps in the air
and now another and another.
They bound across the valley,
gone.
-from "We Touch the Sky", 1979 |
