Ghaap
Sonnets from the Northern Cape
by Michael Cope
Poetry
Rain
GHAAP
Contents
Notes
Scenes & Visions
Some Examples of
Silence
for the time being
Crossing the Desert
back view
Other Poems
Song Lyrics
A Virtual Anthology
YouTube Poems
Cautionary Verses
@ Contact
© Copyright
3 Thorn
He held forth on dispossession,
told a story of how all the land
came to be owned and fenced.
All the time he was talking he
worried at the heel of his left hand.
He reached into a bush beside us
and plucked a thorn.
The first one
wouldn’t come – too green.
A dry spike
broke for him.
He used it to needle
the burr from his palm,
then let it go
without missing a word.
He can still see
the vanished herds, he said,
pointing out there,
over the hill, beyond.
