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Best Poems From
HERBERT NEHRLICH
(04 October 1943)
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993.
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Buried In The West
They had expected it,
that greasy, yellow fog
zigzagging from the one
then to the other lamps
out on the silent street.
The would, of course
be vigilant tonight,
it was their only chance
and the alternative was death.
Tomorrow all would dance
in celebration of the first of May,
the day that workers had,
through Lenin's grace
gained freedom all at once.
There would be, for some time
the sound of guns, more distant now,
as stragglers came to grips
with their own destiny and fears.
It was not theirs, would never be,
this paradise designed in Hell,
let others stay and dance
and kiss their masters' feet,
and listen to the Kremlin's brazen bell.
Berlin had been too far for them to go,
one needed proper documents and guts,
there was no moon tonight but bloody fog,
all three could clearly hear a barking dog.
Pines swayed and creaked as if to shout
a warning and to hurry them,
a rabbit out too late in frozen fear,
the freedom whistle of a foreign train
as terror crawled into heroic hearts.
They'd stitched the fabric over many weeks,
Bulgarian canvas, just imported, but for tents.
A harness borrowed from the country fair
and handkerchiefs to button up the leaks.
Propane had been the worry all along,
they'd stolen just one tank from the old school,
the gas hissed out, igniting as a flare,
and now it grew into a circus tent and more,
each man strapped tightly to their chairs
then they were off into the darkness of the night.
The wind had woken now and helped to make them go,
there was the image of a happy Milky Way,
full steam ahead they sang and watched the giant flame
when shots rang out from fellow citizens of shame.
Too soon they crashed, an urgent, wild descent,
into the river that had promised liberty.
It was the territory of the bold and free.
Four lifeless souls pulled from the water's icy cold,
but the true story, it was never ever told.
Herbert Nehrlich
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994.
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Burma General
He sat and sipped
while orange mumus slipped,
aghast and filled with human fear,
prayers so urgent
rose from cold lips,
courage my shephard,
soldiers may cheer.
An arrow, featherlight and trim
broke silence then
of arrogance and hate,
pausing but briefly
in the satin drapes,
to find its home
within a heart gone cold.
Herbert Nehrlich
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995.
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Bush
I am not smitten with the man
or what he does, day in day out.
I wonder though, just why there is
a veritable hurricane of lies
blasted like unforgiving arctic wind
at him as if he were the culprit,
a villain extraordinaire, mais ouis.
'Ami', says Schroeder privately,
dumm, ein Texasbauer, peasant
with stetson and that longhorn shit
for brain, no European would conduct
himself or this great orchestra
with such incompetence, no way.
'All hurricanes can now be safely blamed
on George, he did not sign the paper',
a fruitcake by the name of Trittin,
says 'Amischwein you did not do
what all the people wanted, your neglect
of the environment has brought
you punishment, so well deserved.'
Al Qaida adds 'it is the wrath of God'.
Another voice wants to be heard,
somewhat anonymously, it says
much money was withheld from New Orleans
to pay for warring in Iraq, and troups,
most of them sent to battle overseas,
and no one left to help those bastards,
who were, by their own frank admission
black as the night, and sins occur,
as we all know, most likely in the dark.
Four years ago the editors of SA
predicted a disaster of unknown proportions
was waiting in the Gulf of Mexico.
They did not mention that the president
would be committing this indictable offence.
Herbert Nehrlich
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996.
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But For The Grace Of God
God sent his only son
Jesus by name
to save the world
with its abundance of
sinners, devils and cockroaches,
but Jesus, who had
never learned the art of smiling,
who was not given talents
such as diplomatic skills,
was caught by the envious ones,
not allowed to speak,
nor to learn how to smile,
and put down like a rabid dog
well before he could have,
perhaps would have
and most certainly should have
spoken the words that were in his heart.
Herbert Nehrlich
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