Poetry and poësie

Johannesburg City Centre East
Photographic by De Waal Venter

Lifetimes

Venice is built
on wooden piles
that are irrevocably sinking
into the dark mud,
a Moray eel withdrawing into a crevice.

Johannesburg is built
on a crust
hollowed by criss-crossing
mining stopes,
an ant-heap
waiting for the crushing boot.

Amsterdam is leaning
against her dykes,
the sea is crawling higher,
a crocodile opening its teeth
against the land.

Tokyo is built
on the fracturing sherds
of continental plates,
the tension is building –
the earth will slip
and stumble.

Where the house was
that I was born in,
there is now the plate-glass windows
of a business;
they sell time – at reduced rates.