GHAAP - Sonnets from the Northern Cape

Ghaap
Sonnets from the Northern Cape
by Michael Cope

4 Nobody knows

Nobody knows how old it is. No-one

knows who made it, no-one knows

what it was for. Hands like these? No-one

knows. Stories, laughter, words? Nobody knows.

The silent stone is silent. It does not

speak. Though the stone is written, it is

a text we cannot read since it does not

propose anything other than what it is.

The stone does not negate anything, it does not

argue against anything – it is silent,

it does not speak, though it does not

refuse to speak or choose to be silent.

Nobody knows how silent this stone is,
or how old, who, where, why this stone is.