Le Simplegadi Vol. XIII-No. 14 November 2015 ISSN 1824-5226 DOI: 10.17456/SIMPLE-3 This work is lincensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Raphael D’Abdon Friuli Blues Chestnut wood pale in the dusky fog jade waters rest where resins grey before the rain there were shadows across the vines i wonder how many flowers fell today how many petals will travel with the clouds the last moment near tears late light floods the hills of friuli crows rise to the sky to never return their shade specks a road as empty as a dry river where my youth said goodbye where i planted a pine tree when i was six oh corners of my heart where nows and thens touch borders and sometimes overlap making visions ravishing it is hard to ride through this day stirred by memories and emotions that hit me like storm waves hit a lighthouse D’Abdon. Poems 15 Le Simplegadi Vol. XIII-No. 14 November 2015 ISSN 1824-5226 DOI: 10.17456/SIMPLE-3 immersed in the daze of sensual anarchy i bathe in the warmth of a blues hidden in the mist of belonging Pretoria, 15 November 2013 Good Fathers i drop my daughter at school kiss her good day and head back to the car an old indian man is walking slowly behind it he carries a stick “can you give me a lift, son?” he asks “sure, sir” he laboriously gets into the car as i crank up the engine “you see that big house in front of the school, son? that’s my daughter’s house. she’s director of human resources at shell and my son is c.e.o. at the water engineering department in durban” pride oozing from his watery eyes “you raised good kids, sir. what’s the secret?” “i sat every night after work with them to help with the homework in the weekend i took them to sport or to the park to make them run and play. i played soccer for south africa in my youth, although my legs are weary now” i stop by the robot to drop him off D’Abdon. Poems 16 Le Simplegadi Vol. XIII-No. 14 November 2015 ISSN 1824-5226 DOI: 10.17456/SIMPLE-3 he opens the door and says: “it was my birthday yesterday” “it was my father’s birthday too” “thank you for the lift, son” “it was a pleasure, sir” smiling he sheds a tear and greets me holding his stick with a trembling hand. “what’s your name, sir?” i ask “sam” “goodbye, mr sam” “goodbye, son” i hit the road and i too shed a few tears thinking about good fathers, hoping to be one myself thinking about mine so many rivers and mountains away from me, i play a cd he gave me when i left home his eyes in the rear view mirror for a moment, i don’t feel alon Rietvlei, 4 september 2014 An Unfolding Miracle I have listened to the words of sages and followed awkward truthtellers footprints where the snow has iced D’Abdon. Poems 17 Le Simplegadi ISSN 1824-5226 Vol. XIII-No. 14 November 2015 DOI: 10.17456/SIMPLE-3 traversing a river that never existed i can feel the hands of healers weaving upon our massacred earth their eyes write pages of brighter days the human world is breathless a better humanity glistens inside what is felt by many as an unfolding miracle Pretoria, 2 April 2015 (written after the massacre at the Garissa University in Kenya) Beginnings At home still thinking of home hush where springs become rivers rivers become bays bays become oceans and oceans become dreams D’Abdon. Poems 18 Le Simplegadi ISSN 1824-5226 Vol. XIII-No. 14 November 2015 DOI: 10.17456/SIMPLE-3 moonlight a star dies a story rises imaginary time memories images words tunes signs beginnings of new journeys Raphael d’Abdon is Lecturer at the English Studies Department of the University of South Africa. In 2013 he published the book Marikana. A Moment in Time, his debut poetry collection Sunnyside Nightwalk, and was featured at the “Poetry Africa” festival. He has published several articles on spoken word poetry and his most recent publication, “Reconceptualizing Poetry as a Multimodal Genre” (Newfield & d’Abdon), will appear in the TESOL Quarterly. dabdor@unisa.ac.za D’Abdon. Poems 19