Zoe's Childhood

Look down, dreamer child
To St. Cyprian's columns,
Your sister-self of years ago.

Back to Nooitgedacht, the homestead
To Africa's shining sands
To the blue waters of Table Bay.

Here you peeled peaches,
Blonde Buhler girls;
Six wide eyes under brimmed straw hats.

Pluck a red Disa for memory,
From a cleft in the rock,
Or a bed in the stream.

Sir Francis was right:
It is the fairest Cape
Of the Fynbos and vines abounding.

Look up now, dreamer child
From the still pulsing land to the light
As it hovers and dances today.

It was here after all
That you saw inhumanity
And your fingers soothed clay

As they still do today.  The giraffe and the hippo
Sit on your shelf with your memories, so far
From Africa's beloved heart.