Innocence melts in burgeoning noon's heat
Roots drink their fill, a hue with emerald time
Field adorns herself in jewels replete
A humming bee tends the wizened vine
Wade in the field knee-deep there to stand
Gaze upon saying naught to snow nor to sand
A trail of gems and traces of things yet unsure
Hum a slow route to the gold salty shore
Oh, dear Field in a blurry mad fade
White snow hastening far and away
Oh, adorned One reveal how the days
From shadows raze your quandering gaze.
an outbreak in the company precinct, Cape Town
He's relaxing in an expensive suit
in India or Dubai, Speaker!
This is ridiculous!
He took our money and ran away!
Let him come here to testify!
It is un African, this thing, this hyena
has captured our poor ministers
and now he has escaped.
He's tarnished our poor black men and women,
captured their imaginations with wealth
and promises of power, used them as tools.
Especially our defenceless women.
He is a toxic man.
Look at his captured victims,
ministers of the ruling party,
they have even taken to wearing Gucci!
I move that we find this hyena in India
and bring him back here so we can
slit him by the tendencies!
We have called him to testify
But where is he?
We are not his fools.
A point of order, Speaker!
This hyena can't say that ...
No, Honourable member
You are out of order.
I did not recognise you.
Speaker, he must withdraw that statement!
This one is just like that fat hyena in India.
His tail is scouring the sand behind him
So smartly he is covering his tracks
and manipulating the voters now
We can never allow him to say we are hyenas.
A point of order, Speaker!
No! I did not recognise you.
The honourable hyena is still on the floor!
Sit down!
Okay, Speaker.
Point of order, Speaker.
Yes, what is your point of order, Honourable member?
The honourable member is wearing Gucci under that red overall
How can he accuse that other man?
It is also not unconstitutional to wear Gucci!
No! That is not a point of order. Sit down!
Point of order, Speaker!
Yes? On what rule do you rise?
No, it is not a rule.
The honourable member is using hate speech.
That is unparliamentary. He must withdraw.
What part is hate speech?
He talks about hyenas, Speaker.
He himself is the hyena, and what does he have against wildlife?
No. You are out of order.
I will turn off your mic because you are acting in an unparliamentary manner.
Where is the fat cat, Speaker?
I move that we call the minister of Home Affairs.
Why did he allow him to escape at the border.
I move for an enquiry into this matter!
I second that motion, Speaker!
i've known love
but only from the inside
from the inside giving out
not even from the inside looking out
for what I saw
was not love
i thought it was
until a moment
when I saw what it was
was love. but
not the giving out kind
and then i came to know
that some live without love
~ whether for fear of it
or having no need for it ~
and that, maybe, all we ever do with love
is live with a burning hunger for it
We dream of it
in front of us, inside us
it helps us sleep until
it begins to keep us from sleep
Once i came to know
then chose
that knowing
and breathing while knowing
requires neither believing in things like trust
in not being hurt by it
in being who I want
but it requires living who I want
regardless of all that may come.
In the years of pale white walls, the faithful are deep black
Roots of the sprout delve deeper, the oak trunks thicken
At the clarion call, they grow securely by streams
Your child's feet stumble, when yours scald on desert sand,
In time, they surround you, braving the wars of the soul
Never bowing, striding in bright light of oiled lamps
Never poorly nor fearful, ever certain and tall.
I came from the sea, a hundred fists to see
Truth's gaunt face from the shadow, "Peer!"
From the rear, a Cheesy Justice chalked a sketch
On the stand, Ms Mockery swore in a blockbuster
Cameras hungry for a feed. The audience cried, "Piece!"
Years of feasting greased, none saw opportune swing
I swore bats fluttered about the din of congregants and kin
Spirits' dance of words stoked old hatreds to an orange verse
Gathered cloth, heads of wigs, a gavel, a pastor and his flock
Arranged a range of confounding non repenting aggressors
Had you feasted fat? Now bleated a cancerous heckle scam
Swarm the rotting flesh. And all but the wicked wept
No verdict yet came from the court of conscience,
By ghouls, the bats' progress. Populate our bloodstained coves
Divide their scraps with loot-soiled hands, on this our honoured sand
Peer new eyes from the wings, 'Attend the sobering words herein.'