Tony Ullyatt. When the present

 

IV

 

When the present can foresee no future

in my being here, my life divested

of everything I’ve treasured down the years

the things on my last to-do list now done

I’ll yield, unflinching, to my destined end

always sustained by the ancient spirits

of that place, the great reach of its night sky

and the fortitude we were gifted there.

Avoiding mundane ceremonials

we shall return to Theefontein as ash

to mingle with the dust of mythic days

the tranquillity of our homecoming

accompanied by wind-sung requiems

and the windpump’s steady Benedictus.

 

© Tony Ullyatt