The Refuge

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Sifting sand and sorting memories:
Silenced into submission as a sheep before shearers,
Deprived and despised, forgotten and forsaken,
Harassed and hounded, blasted and buffeted,
Battered and bruised, ransacked and raped,
Slapped and stabbed as the storms explode
From anger to the crime that's almost murder;
Wounded by transgressions to become his nobody.

Until housed by those who'd made no promise
To love and to cherish till death brings its parting.
Pastoral gentleness imparting insight,
While the sparrow hops under the midsummer sprinkler,
Shaking out feathers as though shedding its past
Ready to fly into freedom with me.

Carehaven, Cape Town.

February 2013