Len Verwey is a South African poet who was born in Mozambique. He is the author of In a Language That You Know (Nebraska, 2017), and his poems have been published in numerous journals, including Transnational Literature and New Contrast. His newest poetry collection, Loving the Dying, was published last month.
Loving the Dying is a collection of poems on life’s different stages. Set against the backdrop of a conflicted society, Len Verwey looks at a person’s life from youth and growing up to aging and dying, considering what the ineluctable reality of death might imply about how we should think about our lives.
Even the Damage Kid Is Glum
I hear even the Damage Kid is glum,
though he sits at the main table
of the insincere feast.
There were matches everywhere, previously,
unlit matches, boxes and boxes of them.
Now there aren’t.
I see his point, though he may exaggerate.
He was in it for the fire,
and the ashy dawns, and the subtle lamentations.
As for me, I miss the cheap shit they were selling
just before the revolution.
It was rubbish but it looked good.
Still, we’ve done ok.
I’d visit him for old times’ sake but we have
our complex different histories,
our old acrimonies.
Maybe I’ll wave across the water though,
from my yacht I can barely sail
to his penthouse suite
the guards keep refusing him entry to.
UNP blog 