Poems by Joshua Coetzee

 

Soap box

 

Give me a soap box
I want to stand tall.
Look over your heads
See the white dove call.

 

There in the corner
See the old box stands.
Alone and neglected
But strong & not effected.

 

Bring my box and place it
Sing my song so you might taste it.
Bitter sweet and melancholy
Take it in or throw it as folly

 

Listen close or listen not
There is no story, nor a plot.
I talk of life, loved, and lost
Sticks to us all like winter frost.

 

Pretend, how you all do so well
That never you where hurt nor fell.
Pretend, how you all do so well
Never your heart was broken, thrown to hell.

 

Not so easy I find the life – less of love
I look still to the calling of my white dove.
How you run and laugh and act so free
When your hearts lie torn on the ground with me.

 

Friends forgotten and ties long burnt and rotten
Like dreams escaping the grasp at morning begotten.
Fancifully full of words and ways, theories and ache
Talk of truth and friendship, loyalties, nothing, fake.

 

Give me a soap box, yes, that I might preach.
Listen to me and learn that I might teach.
Your life is lost and your love is hollow
It’s a bitter pill like I promised but you must swallow.

 

No truth have you known and to come is only sorrow.
Turning your back on you heart and never wanting to follow.
From my box I see, beyond the tears, I focus on the morrow
The white dove calls and time has none more to borrow.

 

XXXXX My word are hollow, empty and stray. For you never listen anyway XXXXX

 

 

 

 

If Today Was My Last

 

If today was my last
Would I be consumed by my past?
Would I want to change events?
Maybe give one or two more compliments

If today was my last
Would I kiss my mothers cheek & hold my father fast.
Would I leave with my eyes cast down?
Or be rewarded with jewelled crown.

If today my time was done
Would I remember days filled with fun?
Would my life be about more than just me?
Or did I at least help set another free.

If today I heard the white dove call
Saw the veil removed from my eyes and fall.
Will I remember my feet in cool waters flow
Or the night walks under moon lit glow.

If today was my last
I’d breath in deep and fill my mast.
Direct my sails and ivory ores
Sail home to golden shores.

If today was my last
I’d cling to suns last ray cast.
Weeping at sunset’s birth
My life was full, I feel no mirth.

If today the father called me home.
Erect for me no fake tome.
Ashes to dust from what I’m made
I lie not there for my price was paid

If today you find me gone
May your heart be filled with song.
I’ve left the place people call life
For true freedom full and rife.

If today was my last
I would love, appreciate, enjoy and do it fast.
For once to live and once to die
Then be passed to by and by

 

 

 

 

First Reading

 

Sitting on a stool with spotlight in my eyes.
The first poetry reading I have ever been to
And now I find my self on stage.
I start:

 

“Any South Africans in the house
No!! So I’m alone then
Like I was from the start.
We are born alone
And die alone
It’s just the time in-between.
My life … nothing more than a blink
In the greater scheme of the universe.

 

From the dawning of days old
To this present I sit here dazed and cold.
For we are so bold
To think ourselves wise and old.
As we do the moss settles on our bones with mould.

 

Like one to another
One to the other
Nothing but sheep in a flock and fold.
Time keeps flying and flying
While we try to wean ourselves off the media propaganda
But just keep on buying and buying.
Do you know our world is dying?

 

You and I like me and you are an oak of sorts.
One grown tall, proud and strong
Another chosen its self twisted, bent and contorts.
In a mind clear and calm crystal springs
Another warped, broken with darkened things.”

 

Looking down from my stool I catch my breath.
Take another breath in and sigh one out.

 

 

I continue:

 

“Look for me as I see you there
Try to see me as I start to care.
Lips tremble as hearts falter
My mind ponders as thoughts halter.
Pointless I find my Quest
But still I must find rest

 

There must be more than just me
Looking trying to see.
There must be another in this sea
This sea of faces that stare at me.
Another, just one, not bound
By social norms and society crowned.
One who does not bow a knee
To fake rule set in T.V

 

Your products, your way, your life
It's not mine, nor sets me free, but causes me strife.
I don’t fit this maze of concrete
I don’t want a bigger piece of cheese to eat.
Fuck the idea of the majority controlled by the minority
If I was to bend to that then enter me to your sorority.

 

I will not sit on the ebb and flow
I will not apologise for the looks you show.
My life is as I have chosen
I don’t care if you find me frozen.

 

Your life is yours, mine is fine.
Don’t compare me to you, then ask me to explain
I don’t want your life, your car, your pain.
I am more free than you can ever be
I am more me than you could ever see.”

 

 

I get up and walk out into the sweet night air.

 

 

 

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