to find me
at my moment of birth
you had best sail up
the Mersey from thirteen-
year old John Lennon
take the right hand lane when
you get to
the tributaries Tame and
Irwell
and that would be apt since
the meaning of
my name is
“one who tames”
and who could have
foreseen that three-
ring rock circus primed
for it’s happening
and me
off to apartheid South Africa
with my Dad and our gang
him desperate to
get a job
and me
now sort of
poet of semi-desert, before
that subtropical and
there, beneath the flat
mountain, African
Mediterranean, and
lover of
every shade of soil, of
sand and
(if you
get my drift)
shape
of the land
bashing out a beat that is
a bit out of rhythm
somewhat out
of sync
too carnival intellectual for
any local bandwagon, any
serous attempt at
a local or
imported hybrid strain
of
a universal music
strain and
revolutionary chord.
