Keith Gottschalk

 

AFRICAN AFTERNOON

"people do not possess each other, instead they go together
as a flame that passes through another flame."
- Shelly Hurwitz: to depart in one's self

dreams & ancestors enter my home
idumbe plants itself between the buchu
tomatoes sprawl red near the dakriet:
cows change their address.

in Africa, some bridegrooms pay alimony when they marry
in Europe, some bridegrooms pay lobolo when they divorce.

soon after the day's middle, the sky darkens, mauve.
clouds clear their throat
tension
storms' static drums like fingers on a back.

it's almost two centuries since
Bunsen sketched out the zones of a flame:
blue, peach, orange - above, the shaking air.
on some test stand, a rocket engine spluttered
from mach diamonds to combustion instability.

people do not possess each other, instead
they part
as a flame that passed through another flame.

 

idumbe (Zulu) - tuber that looks like giant beetroot, but tastes like potato.
buchu (Khoi) - intensely aromatic bush.
dakriet (Afrikaans) - thatch reed.
lobolo (Xhosa) - bridegroom's dowry, notionally cows, to parents of bride
Bunsen - Robert Bunsen (1811-1899).
mach diamonds - Ernst Mach (1838 - 1916) sometimes, in a rocket's exhaust
          flame, fluctuating pressures shape pulses of bright fire like a string of
                jewels.

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