Eric Braude | At Dusk, South Africa

Removal

My friend Anthony sucked eggs
with a pipette, adding
to his collection from nests
in Southern Africa.

Every space was game: mangroves,
beaches far from habitation,
a field beside the drive-in movies
where we found the finest:

Widowbirds, tails thrice their body length,
Spectacled Weavers, their upside-down
nests suspended from the same
subtropical trees we climbed all day,

Paradise-Flycatchers,
Speckled Mousebirds,
pink eggs, turquoise, textured,
spotted, elongated, empty.

====

At Dusk, South Africa

Shirtless for the Durban heat,
two-man soccer
on bleached beach-sand.

Waves recede as we kick,
cool ankles, skirmish
in Indian Ocean foam,

play alone till dark,
tackling, dribbling
across Whites Only sand.

Placid lies our private sea,
slow-heaving, colorless,
yet opaque.

====

Sons of King Shaka

1957

Elijah on his knees
polishes every floor
every day, aromas

in his wake. Jeremiah
tends his native soil, the owners’
garden. It’s Sunday afternoon,

servants’ half-day off. White Durban
dozes in subtropic torpor.
From quarters hidden

by backyard shrubbery, “boys”
emerge, clad in flapping khaki shorts,
sandals cut from used car tires.

Three and four abreast, humming
Zulu call-response, the men
stride down the middle

of the street, their names:
Mandla power, Sibusiso blessing,
Nkosinathi God is with us.

====

South Africa Interior

I didn’t know what part to play
at those nightly dances. Worried
about my progress meeting girls,
my parents had sent me

to the foothills of the vast
Drakensberg range—a hotel’s
“youth week.” The dance band
deadening, I read instead,

relishing a room to myself,
signed up for climbs. A khaki-
clad Zulu, beard a wiry gray,
his hatband leopard skin,

guided me up the escarpment
through all-day mist until we gazed
beyond the rim at the great plateau,
sunlit swaying grass.

====

Mr. Adams

At cricket games, he bears
the school’s huge flag
at awkward angles.

Short, slacks gray, gray hair,
jacket a blend of beiges,
he teaches Latin,
history. Caesar ruled from?
(no

response)
49 B.C., until?

(nothing)
44 B.C. Let’s compare him
with the most influential French general
of the nineteenth century,
namely? It’s

subtropical southern Africa,
classroom stifling, we wear
wool uniforms.

We won’t
help him.

====

Poetry (c) Eric Braude
Image: James Asad Unsplash