[THE MERMAID OF THE KAROO] Past De Rust There’s a turn-off That leads To where the Mermaid Of the Karoo lives Her father sold petrol Beside the N12 Her mother disappeared Before she was old enough To ask She swims when it rains In a farm dam Behind the house With her Sunday dress Still on The truckers blow their horns As they pass the road But nobody turns off Anymore Except me I last saw her In ninety-four Her hair was wet And my suitcase Was packed She said The sea is only water That found enough room To forget She never did Mermaid of the Karoo Waiting where the dirt road bends I have seen the whole wide world But every road back home Runs past her again Her father died one winter The petrol pumps ran dry Someone painted CLOSED Across the glass In white She stayed beside the dam While the windmill turned Said some people leave And some become The place I wrote from Johannesburg Then London for a while Every letter came back With red ink Across her name Last night outside De Rust I took the turn The farmhouse stood empty But the dam held A little rain A dress moved through the water Or maybe through my mind Then something beneath the surface Turned once And disappeared Mermaid of the Karoo Waiting where the dirt road bends I have seen the whole wide world But every road back home Runs past her again Mermaid of the Karoo I know why you never left The sea is only water And some kinds of leaving Never take you anywhere Past De Rust There’s a turn-off I still know The way.
