Maeder Osler writes:

I am talking from Somerset West, which also happens to be the place of the last days of both my mother and my father. Thus, in a spirit of shared praise songs, and names, it is good to feature (in this stoeptalk section of opengates) a sample of the poetry of the Somerset West linguist, Vernon February:

The People’s Bus

Nobody who is an expert
Has ever taken a ride
On a people’s bus
Lines 2 ,7 or 9.

Nobody who is an expert
Of the third world
Has ever had to arch his back
And find his way to half a seat

Nobody who is an expert
Has ever had his ears pierced
By the loud and soulful blare
Of the latest hit.

Nobody who comes with plans
In a briefcase for a better world
From his safe and opulent confines
Of his materialistic world
Has ever seen the dark and muted faces
Of the Creole and the Hindu in a bus.
Lord! Let them take a ride one day!

Nobody who comes in a plane with a briefcase
full of plans for a better world
has ever seen the peoples’ world,
from their air-conditioned rooms
over-looking palm-fronded swimming pools.

Nobody who is an expert on the poor
Has ever seen…