The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo by Peter Orner Page A

various places around the
     farm. She begins to read.
    Most days she lets the wind decide the page. Other, rarer times, like now, she goes back to the beginning.
    The beginning? Does one remember being born? I was always at Goas. Even before I was at Goas, I was at Goas. Before the dry
     land was the water and the firmament. Out this window, I see the dry land. At night, I see the firmament. Where’s the water?
    They say there was an ocean here once. It must have dried up.
    And the boy, scrambling out from under the table, makes for the door.

38
OBADIAH (SHAVING)
    Two souls abide, alas, within my breast,
    And each one seeks riddance from the other.
    The one clings with a dogged love and lust
    With clutching parts unto this present world.
    The other surges fiercely from the dust
    Unto sublime ancestral fields.
    GOETHE, FAUST
    I stand before this mirror an orphan. Of my own body I would say I have decidedly mixed feelings. It is tall. It carries my
     head. It seems my left leg is longer than my right, but this has never been proven. There are days when I see my feet as if
     from a great distance. When I was young, in my vanity, I favored turtleneck sweaters to accentuate what I considered to be
     my Corinthian neck. That I am now ugly is of no concern. My mottled, sagging skin. My berried nose. That my face fails to
     present my beauty and originality is not a failure of my maker. Rather, it is a testament to the unsung nature of my uniqueness.
     That the philistines cannot recognize my soaringness only makes it truer. More than truth. Is there a higher highest? A truthlier
     truth? My head carries my thoughts and my legs carry my body. And yet touch—physical—I long for it again.
Don’t you remember?
When you used to do do do Meneer Oblongsky? Remember? Your thimbled fingers? When I was poor but also beautiful? Now I’m
     poor and ugly? Meneer Oblongsky hangs limp like a wrung chicken’s neck, and still I’m sick with desire? Lame men make lusty
     husbands? Would it were so, Poet. Now I ride the donkey by memory. And yet it isn’t merely youth I lust for, but last week.
     Give me back last week. My Antoinette in her chair rubbing her feet with camphor.

40
GOAS
    T he first recorded attempt to escape Goas occurred in 1930, when a Boer farmer named S. J. Dupreez tried to trade the farm
     for a lusher parcel upcountry.
    OFFICE OF THE MAGISTRATE
    KARIBIB
    12 JULY 1930
    My dear Sir,
    As you no doubt know I have been a heavy loser of stock, having lost all owing to the latest drought. It was my intention
     to quit the country altogether but owing to the pleas of my motherless and unmarried daughter Grieta I have decided to try
     again but in another district. With this end in view I paid a visit to the north and was very much taken with the east side
     of Outjo District, particularly the vacant farm Weiseenfels. What I propose to do is effect an exchange of my farm Goas with
     that of Farm Weiseenfels, the hectarage being roughly the same. Goas as you know is occasionally well watered, and will no
     doubt make a most valuable addition to the Otjimbingwe Native Reserve, an opportunity for an enterprising kaffir. In penning
     you these lines I do so in the hope that you will kindly forward same with your recommendation to the proper quarters.
    Your Obedient Servant,

S. J. Dupreez
    SECRETARY FOR SOUTHWEST AFRICA
    F. P. COURTNEY CLARK
    WINDHOEK
    8 DECEMBER 1930
    RE: FARM GOAS
    SIR, I beg to forward herewith for your consideration a letter received from Mr. S. J. Dupreez, owner of the farm Goas in
     this district. There has been no rain on the farm since early last year, and Mr. Dupreez has lost all his cattle throught
     [
sic
] drought. I have informed Mr. Dupreez that the Administrator does not contemplate purchasing any of the farms adjoining the
     Otjimbingwe Native Reserve owing to the depletion of stock therein, and there is little likelihood of his proposal being accepted.
    Acting Magistrate

T. Miller
    OFFICE OF THE