There are bullets that draw sparking lines <br />on the rocks next to him <br />and in the mountain pass, <br />Jan Pieterse and ten men <br />stand to keep <br />the English back. <br /> <br />The smoke of shots being fired <br />hangs like fog around him <br />and gunlock after gunlock, <br />are cocked time after time <br />and Jan Pieterse and his men <br />shoot carefully while the morning’s dusk appears. <br /> <br />At the bottom a Boer commando <br />goes through the river’s ford <br />and there are horse hoofs resounding <br />and a liddite bomb, <br />explodes like a flaming star <br />in the grey air <br />before the sun rises. <br /> <br />The dust clears <br />and the commando rides away <br />and it’s just Jan Pieterse and one comrade, <br />that is still alive <br />and they give their horses full reigns. <br /> <br />It’s only Jan Pieterse that gets away <br />and he turns his horse around, <br />chase back into the bullets <br />and liddite bombs <br />to get his mate. <br /> <br />With his wounded comrade <br />hanging over the front of his saddle <br />Jan Pieterse and each Englishmen <br />experience the first red rays of the sun <br />and his horse walks slowly on, <br />as if no bullet can touch him there <br />and nothing can kill a Boer hero. <br /> <br />The English stop shooting <br />and cheer about the bravery <br />of a enemy Boer, <br />that disappears with rifle in his hand <br />over the horizon. <br /> <br />[References: The historic heroic story of Jan Pieterse during the second Anglo-Boer war. The poem “Rit-rympie” by Toon van den Heever.]<br /><br />Gert Strydom<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-mountain-pass/
