I can’t explain to you his face
(it was awesome his mom says)

In sevens heaven they are
twelve young rugby players
representing the country-beloved

He couldn’t stop speaking
another parent says of their child
I even think he cried but
he was happy and I was happy for him

folks all-round taking the poetic
perhaps getting interpreted roughly
maybe they translated before
the words came out in Engli-kaans
(what is “ecstatic” in Afrikaans)

I can’t explain to you his face
(having) the experience of a lifetime
where usually it’s all about crime
poverty teenage pregnancy ghetto-life
(an old Bonteheuwel school ground
is now a “haven for lawlessness”)

from Bonteheuwel and Macassar
to a small independent principality
Monaco where folks speak Monégasque
(a mixture of French and Italian)
though French is official

what will they take in in Monaco
(these youngsters wide-eyed)
the cathedral and palace
some Opera and the Philharmonic
or might they just laze on the beach
in that haven of a different type

I can’t explain to you his face
at a tournament over the seas
they will have plenty to explain
(writing ritual tasks for grades)
on their return to their heaven-local

A play on that idiom, in “12 city rugby kids are in sevens heaven” (Sunday Argus, February 7 2016).

See “Rosewood dumping ground” (Athlone News, February 3 2016).