POETRY                                                                                               (Copyright - Pierre du Toit)
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The Bird                                            

Jesus, it is written,
knows of every bird which falls
(what a mess it must have been
 at Hiroshima
 - his files I mean)
and so, I must believe,
he knows about the swallow
in the photo on my wall
(I took the picture in Chicago
where, like love,
it died unseen
in snow)
which makes me wonder
if this bird,
serenely dead,
was entered with a number
(not its own)
like the well-known soldier
named unknown
or the mother-daughter-wife
whose notice here
was shown 

"Identifications sought:
 DR/1723/84
 Black woman, aged about 68,
 found dead
 at the municipal rubbish dump
 near Guguletu."

at least...

the bird is not alone

  (See photograph at Etcetera non-SA / Album 006 #2 )

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