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The Cape Town Book Launch...

A LOVE LETTER FOR THE EPOCH

There are still a few copies of the second edition remaining @ R120 per copy or R100 if you buy more than one. Inbox me for more info on how to purchase.

MINUS 34

Thirty four is not

Equal

To fifty-one-point-eight-million

It is not me

Nor you

It was them

The thirty-four from the headline

That are late.

Thirty four plus

Two parents each

Plus a spouse and siblings

And an average

Of two-point-four-two

Minors

And suddenly thirty four

Is equal to more than a few hundred.

Thirty four miners

Buried underground

Beneath the deceit

And piled-up profits

That pays the executioner

And buys the lies

As state-sanctioned murder

Is normalized.

Minus thirty four

A democratic massacre

More blood on the balance sheet

Of the corporation slave master

Brutal bastards who lurk

Behind manicured smiles

And doctored public profiles

That will never stand trial.

Tomorrow's Yesterday

And as one adventure concludes

we are faced

with the prospect
of so much more

beckoning to be begun.

Love, passion, life and living.

Memory.

No one truly exists

without the other.

Yet exist we do
even
if only to sustain

hope in the tumult

of progression.

A brief tribute...

In the yellow enamel mug, place half pap and fill with milk - stir with fork. +/- 2cm boiling water in smallest pot - add a pinch of salt, add pap and stir - Start at 6 & reduce to 3 once it starts to pop/boil. Add a good dollop of butter and stir.

Serve in a small, flattish white bowl. Dad will add sugar... May our memories remain alive!

Spoken Word Namibia - May 2014

Pic by Don Stevenson

IN DEATH

There exists

An extended moment

Momentarily eternal

Eternally challenging

Perpetually illuminating

Yet passing

Embracing

Beyond the past

Into a future

Inevitably without you

And ultimately me: 

Incontrovertibly true

THE HEART OF SOUND

Here

In the heart of sound

I am loathe to speak

To express

Listen

Understand

Here in the heart of sound

Where the deception

And distraction

Mean nothing

More than noise

Nothing

More than cacophony

Just more noise

No understanding

Hear

The heart of sound

Unadorned and inviolate

Pure and un-maligned

As honest

As truth can ever be

Subjective

Not necessarily

Interested in

Objectivity

Here

Inside the heart

Of sound where

I fail

To express

I listen filtering

Faltering

Unable to hear

Ambient noise

Disturbing

Disturbed

And deluded

Distrusted

And depressed

Dissonant

Dissidence

Here in the heart of sound

Where silence is 
Alien and the familiar

Is strange

Hence

I am loathe to speak

To express

Any truth or honesty

I listen

HULLE SÊ...

hulle sê

ek is mal
hulle praat baie

ma' hulle
sê niks.

i am not

well adjusted

my faith

is not entrusted

to some social structure

designed to keep me

in my place.

i am not

apathetically idle,

only happy

to be sad

and powerless

a pawn, a victim

of happenchance

or circumstance.

hulle sê

ek is befok

but ek is

just

mal-adjusted

my belief

is vested in the many

truths i see.

expressed in our actions

or more likely

our inaction

content with discontent

turning a blind eye

convinced of the lie

enslaved

in our minds.

hulle bly sê

ek is nog altyd mal

ma’ hulle stemme is dof

net so

‘s hulle gedagtes

vol bedrog

ma’ tog bly
hulle sê niks.

NO NEED TO WONDER

I often wonder

What it is that you see

As you look out

Through the double-glazed veneer

Of your privileged arrogance

And the insolence of entitlement

That frames your perception.

I often wonder

Who it is that you see

When you look

At someone like me

Proud and comfortable

In my skin

Of earth-tones and darkness.

Do you ever wonder

About a mind and a soul

Or a whole being beyond

The limits of all

You think you know

And the places you go

To get away from what surrounds you.

Do you ever wonder

About your complicity

In maintaining this status quo

And the inherent violence

That sustains this inequality

And the ingrained injustice

That you so conveniently ignore.

I sometimes wonder

About what it all means

Whether the purchased education

And material success

Has any substance

If it serves only to enhance the distance

Between your view and what is true.

But mostly there is

No need to wonder

The cause and effects

Blatantly apparent

The callousness abhorrent

The outlook remains myopic

This democracy is despotic.