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Open Poetry #47
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Just in Case I am about to be Murdered
| Open Poetry #47 |
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Just in Case I am about to be Murdered |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa 
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JUST IN CASE I AM ABOUT TO BE MURDERED 29 April 2011 Just in case the messages are a warning that I am about to be murdered or raped or shot or knifed or assaulted in some way or even just burgled, I just wanted to say either a permanent or a temporary goodbye, whichever is appropriate, depending on the outcome. However, if he/they wanted to do any of those things it doesn’t make sense to warn me on Tuesday and Friday by leaving and moving objects to show clearly without any shadow of a doubt that “they” were here and that they want me to know and thus allow me to take the necessary precautions! If they are trying to frighten me they have succeeded only a tiny bit and they have done their souls a great disservice. What gets my poor little goat more than the little niggling fear, and especially as to the best of my knowledge, I haven’t annoyed anyone recently, is the unsolved mystery of WHO and WHY! Owl |
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| © Copyright 2011 Diana van den Berg - All Rights Reserved | |||
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Lori Grosser Rhoden Member Patricius
since 2009-10-10
Posts 10202Fair to middlin' of nowhere |
tell me it isn't true! But you are so full of peace and love I guess the haters can't help but hate you....you threaten their very existance.  Lori |
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Dawn Brink Junior Member
since 2011-04-28
Posts 44South Africa |
The "permanent or temporary goodbye"... It's scary how that possibility is a reality! But great poem. I like how your words just flow naturally. |
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Margherita Member Seraphic
since 2003-02-08
Posts 22236Eternity |
Dear Diana, may the Angels protect you. It is a disquieting message and I wish you were not living alone. I think there is no safe place anymore in the world. Your words convey this dramatic situation so strongly. Sometimes fear makes us imagine the worst things and also interpret things in a wrong way. You are wrapped in God's protecting and loving arms. Love and hugs. Margherita |
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JerryPat2 Member Laureate
since 2011-02-06
Posts 16975South Louisiana |
Stay armed, Owl and if you have a friend have him/her stay with you. I would say go to the police, but if they are anything like the police here they will tell you to go home, be murdered, and they will looking into it. I'm hoping this is a damn cruel joke. And it sound like it just might be. ~ Passionate kiss, like spider web, leads to undoing of fly. ~ |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa |
Lori, it isn’t nearly as bad as it sounds. I really doubt that I have been targeted to be murdered or raped or assaulted or even just burgled, because if that were the case, the perpetrators have already warned me and logic and trite sayings declare that forewarned is fore-armed! Lol. However, to get to the facts, on the days that I work at the office (Monday to Friday except Wednesdays) at lunch time, I come home (only about 10 minutes away) to check on Benji and Cleo (my dog and my cat) and let Benji out to do his business. I stay for only about 5 to 10 minutes and then rush back to work again. On Tuesday it appeared to me (with only about 97% certainty) that a message had been left for me - WHAT message I really don't know (other than somebody was on my property), but a message nevertheless. It is believed – and is probably true – that an item placed strategically OUTSIDE one’s property can mean something depending on the colour, shape or item. For example, red is supposed to mean that there is a gun on the property that can be stolen; white means this is a soft target; blue means a domestic inside who can help with information or whatever, etc. However, nobody could see any of the following items from the road. Somebody had left a small empty yoghurt container upright on my driveway, in front of the middle of my garage and the Tuesday free local newspaper strewn over my front verandah with an empty scrunched up cigarette box on the path below the bottom step up to my front verandah. It seemed very strange. Logistics and possibilities told me that the chance of it being anything other than somebody having done it on purpose (e.g. next door children throwing the empty yoghurt container over the wall all the way around trees and bushes and through the razor wire and up the driveway and right to the exact middle of the garage door and land upright - and the wind having blown the whole newspaper and cigarette box all the way from the post box up and over the high fence, all the way up the drive-way all the way to the house and round it all the way to the front verandah and up the stairs) was about minus 10%. However, I accepted that there was the tiniest possibility that it wasn't a message - and if it was, what is the point? Today, I am sure it was the same person (or more likely people) who made absolutely certain that I understood that what they did IS a message, though again I have no idea what the message is, other than somebody was here. After entering my electronic gate (with a remote button) and going up the driveway and then into the garage opening the electronic garage door (using a remote button) and putting the car away, I need to walk around the garage and then the length of it to get to the side of the house. There is a high wooden gate to go through, then on the right is the domestic's quarters (room and toillet and shower - but I don't have a domestic currently) and on the left is my rubbish bin. Then there is a metal gate and on the other side is my back garden and an upside down rubbish bin that I don't use because I discarded its lid because it was finished. Somebody took the lid off the rubbish bin I use and went through the gate and turned the other rubbish bin upright and put the lid on it and took a wooden box (which used to be used to grow flowers in) out of the domestic's quarters and put it near the wooden gate where I couldn't help but see it. Around the front of the house they put a white pair of men's shoes and socks very neatly indeed on the middle stair up to the front verandah. On the step above was a small torn piece of newspaper. I haven't made anyone angry or done or said anything bad to anyone, which makes it very weird. Somebody is trying to scare me and I am determined not to be afraid (well, not much! Lol!). Since my attacks on my driveway in 2005, I haven't entered my property after dark without an armed escort from the main local security company. Now, for the next little while, I am getting them to escort me on to my property at lunch time and after work (in broad daylight) because this happened in the morning both on Tuesday and today! However, I honestly don't think whoever it is, is intending to do me any harm as then they would have done so and not WARNED me so that I can protect myself - but that makes it scary to think how their mind works - because they are not getting anything material out of it, and I am not afraid because I am getting Park Patrol to escort me on to the property during the day as well - but Park Patrol won't keep that up for too long. Also it is going to be a problem if I want to leave the house on Wednesdays - I will have to ask for their help then too. However, all this shall pass, at some stage, but just in case it doesn't go the way I would like, I thought I would say a melodramatic (LOL) temporary or permanent goodbye! More LOL. Owl |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa |
Dawn, just as you know the reality of this, living in South Africa, you will also know that it isn’t nearly as scary as people in other countries think – strange things happen to somebody or other all the time, except this is weird. LOL. Thank you Margherita – but I don’t stay alone – I have Benji and Cleo, she says smiling – but I know what you mean. However, you are so right. Fortunately I am only a little afraid – just enough to be cautious. However, there are times that cautious isn’t always enough. Yes, I know I am wrapped in God’s protecting and loving arms, and He and my Guardian Angels, Flicka, Tigger and Daisy will watch over me. Thank you for your beautiful message. Owl |
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JerryPat2 Member Laureate
since 2011-02-06
Posts 16975South Louisiana |
Do you have somebody to watch your house and area for you while you are at work, Owl" ~ Passionate kiss, like spider web, leads to undoing of fly. ~ |
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icebox Member Elite
since 2003-05-03
Posts 4383in the shadows |
I wish you well. I am too primitive to not be armed. |
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JamesMichael Member Empyrean
since 1999-11-16
Posts 33336Kapolei, Hawaii, USA |
Nice writing...James |
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Margherita Member Seraphic
since 2003-02-08
Posts 22236Eternity |
Sleep well, dear Owl, your love for humanity is the most powerful protective shield where eventual bad intentions bounce back to the sender ... And of course Benji and Cleo also provide you with sweet love and a deep sense of tranquility.Love and hugs. Margherita |
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serenity blaze Member Empyrean
since 2000-02-02
Posts 27738 |
sigh The "theys" of this world like to remind others that even though "we" do not ask for permission to exist, "they" are being magnanimous in allowing us to do so. Amping up the terror...or trying to. love you brave lady |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa |
Jerry, I got the email notification that you had responded, but last night it wasn’t showing, not even on pressing the Print option which I thought showed even the newest responses. Thanks for your response and concern, but I hate guns with a passion and wouldn’t be able to shoot anyone if I did have one. I am fine with the security escort having one though. Also I like staying on my own (except for my animals, of course!). The police in South Africa are much like anywhere else – and bad in some cases – we have had 2 recent incidents of police brutality (and many in the past) – but they are improving in some places (e.g. at our local police station, Montclair Police Station – no small thanks to my son and others, who is the chairman of Yellowood Park and Woodhaven Sector Policing Forum, along with being a police reservist in his – ha ha – spare time), but without a better charge than invasion of my property, and no chance of fingerprints – the shoes they left were sopping wet – there wouldn’t be much point, at this stage. As far as a being a joke, I don’t think they mean it as kindly as a joke – I am certain there is definite serious intent. As far as it being cruel, I am sure that is part of the intent, but it ain’t working too well because I am fairly blasé about it – well, so far anyway, lol – because I am so used these things and have been infinitely more afraid than this before – for example when I was gagged and bound in my house while they robbed me and threatened with a knife waving in my face, but up to now, except for a few very minor bruises from them banging my head against a wall and the marks from the ropes, I haven’t ever been hurt – hope I am not jinxing that now, lol! It has just made me take all the precautions I can think of, like alerting my son, my neighbours, the security company, coming on to my property with a security company officer and saying “goodbye” to you all, “just in case”! I would just love, though, to know who and why and also very especially to understand academically how his/their mind work/works. No, Jerry, I don’t really have somebody to watch my house very especially while I am at work, but the security company will be doing extra slow, watchful drives past. Also Benji and Cleo set the alarm off quite often and so I usually have at least one visit by the security company a day. I am on very friendly terms with all of the officers and also there is a handyman working next door whom I have asked to watch out for me. Also the wife next door is at home over this week and a bit of next – we have had some extra holidays over and beyond Easter holidays, but neither of my neighbours can really see my house. It is on a very wide corner with a Scout Hall across the road on one side and a bank between the road and the road below and only houses on the other side of the second road. Also I live near an excellent escape route over a railway line behind the Scout Hall. However, my home security is excellent – not perfect, but excellent. Owl |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa |
Thank you Charly for wishing me well. I am sure I will be fine. I hate guns, don't know how to use them and wouldn't be able to shoot anyone if I had one and it would probably be taken from me and used against me, lol! However, I have been entering my property with an armed security guard after dark for some years now since my last attacks, and will do so for a week or so during the day now - and I am delighted that they are armed! Smiles. Owl |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa |
Thanks, James. Owl |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa |
Thanks, Margherita. I did. Yes, I do believe the perpetrator/s is/are doing himself/themselves more harm than me. Benji and Cleo are wonderful and my son is very supportive. And I really am not too worried at all – just taking some somewhat embarrassing precautions! Love and hugs to you too and thanks for yours. Owl |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa |
Thanks, Karen. Giggles at your reply, yep they do like to remind us that! And yes, you hit the nail on the head - TRYING to amp up the terror, but they AIN'T succeeding in this case (or at least only a little), lol! I'm not brave, Karen, but thanks for thinking so. I am simply used to the culture and believe in taking all the possible precautions and warning others in the neighbourhood - and then living in peace and tranquility - of course, many times in the past I have been frightened, and was this time a little bit, and probably will be again - but the birds we think are so free and peaceful, are looking over their shoulders all the time to protect themselves from predators, so I am OK with doing that myself - except that I would love to be able to go for walks on my own again (carrying my car keys and/or house keys and my gate remote and my cell phone, and if in a nature reserve my binocculars and camera and at least one bird book and at least one tree book). Perhaps we will be able to get the country back to that level of safety if we work hard enough at it. Some of us are trying. Smiles. Love you too, Karen. Owl |
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Marchmadness Member Rara Avis
since 2007-09-16
Posts 9271So. El Monte, California |
Oh, Diana Please take care of yourself. You may not be afraid but I am afraid for you and your babies too. Love, Ida |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa |
Thank you for your beautiful, kind concern, Ida. However, don't be afraid for me and my sweetie-pies. I am taking every precaution possible for my babies and me. They are indoors while I am at work, and in all the years I have had of many, many burglaries, none of my babies have ever been harmed. However, if somebody broke in, I am afraid for Benji as he is such a brave little fellow. Cleo, I am sure, would have the good sense to hide. However, my security is excellent now, so the chances of "them" getting in again are much slimmer than ever before. Owl |
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Martie
Moderator
Member Empyrean
since 1999-09-21
Posts 28049California |
Diana....I read this yesterday and came back today to check on you. Life where you are is so different than here, yet in some ways, fear is always the same. I see you trust yourself and the things you have put in place to protect you. However, I wish you the peace of knowing that you are safe. |
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Honeybunch Member Rara Avis
since 2001-12-29
Posts 7115South Africa |
I'm sorry that you've had the scare that you have had, Diana, but let's hope "they" are off to pastures new now. Stay safe! Helen |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa |
Thank you, Martie. That was a sweet thought. Thanks, yes, I am probably safe with the precautions I have taken. Smiles. Thanks, Helen. I will certainly try to stay safe. Actually I hope (seeing through rose-coloured glasses! Lol) that they aren’t off to any pastures at all! Smiles. Owl |
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Alison 
since 2008-01-27
Posts 9318Lumpy oatmeal makes me crazy! |
I think you should get a goose. You know nothing gets by a goose! Love you. Alison |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa |
Thank you, Alison. I'd love to get a whole gaggle of geese, lol (but can't, unfortunately). Don't you just love that collective noun? Owl |
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