Litera

Something of a song for Stephen Gray

Charika Swanepoel

Copyright: © 2018. The Author(s). Licensee: AOSIS.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Your stance and the ferocity of your frown
shows that you know, that you’ve always known,
exactly who Stephen Gray should truly be.
I envy you this surety of self
but, of course, that’s only the Italian you.
The ‘accident of your birth’, here at home,
still ripples on, still doubts itself sometimes,
still stumbles, yet shares that same forthrightness.
Between local talk, Adamastor, and Shelley,
I’ve found you and have made you my own.
Though I hate your love of popular politics
and complacent academic air,
I look at you there,
in that photo Giovanni took,
and I see my own truth,
our truth.