GIFTS

by Jane Abrahams, with love.  12/9/17
 
For Malcolm and Christine
     as they leave Johannesburg.

Go joyfully, dear people
back to the source whence flowed
all our gifts of language, music, art.
 
But take with you
in a small corner of your luggage
a bit of our roughness:

the way the red earth
shouts at the sky, the way the crowd
toyi-toyis like waves of the sea.
Take with you the memory
of swarming taxis and ugly downtown buildings,
of makeshift shabby homes
and the quiet green garden spaces
where you laid to rest
some of our friends.
 
When you are cradled
in the culture of centuries
remember us
who perch on such a thin veneer of history
who drank so eagerly of what you had to give.
 
Just two of you – but your modest hands
poured out an abundance:
a river of gifts for our thirsty soil                  
and always
the greatest gift of all –
the caring, listening ear.

Rev. Malcolm and Christine Allsop. Malcolm was a priest in the Johannesburg congregation for four years (Dec. 2013 - Sept. 2017) before he was sent to a congregation in Vienna, Austria. Christine is a curative eurythmist and musician. She was very active in the congregation and enlivened the music in the church.