Nathan Trantraal
trans. by Alice Inggs
Valhalla Park
Theres grown people that sit on the pavement
and speak ugly and play dominoes
babies that speak ugly
and play inna middle offa road,
the cars must drive around them;
whole families that sit next to the street
in fronta their howses and give you a kak look
if you walk past.
There are geese inna road,
a hunnerd stray dogs,
a thousand stray people
and if you look carefully atta faces
you will see that they’ve all
been dead fora thousand years—
the people
the geese
anna dogs.
They are satisfied to be ther
an evrywun that lives in Valhalla Park
will tell you: Itsa safest place if you live there
and I belief them cos its a proven fact
thatta dead don’t haunt each otha.
Nathan Trantraal is a poet and journalist. He won the 2015 Ingrid Jonker prize for his debut poetry collection, Chokers en Survivors. His most recent collection, Alles Het Niet Kom Wôd, was published this year.
Alice Inggs is an editor, writer, and translator. She contributes to a number of literary, arts, and pop culture publications, including Asymptote Journal, Ons Klyntji, Monocle, and VICE.