poet and storyteller
how i never have to blow dust off your name, never have to search for it, hands over eyes hiding. ready or not, here i come. how it sits there quietly on my shoulder all day smiling kicking its feet, happy. and at night how it curls up in that soft space where neck meets... Continue Reading →
so, you have had loss—things, and people have been taken from you. i know the shadows of this place, too. you did not see any of it coming. did not ask for it. did not agree to it. for a long while now you have lived your life stunned, every breath a shallow thing. you... Continue Reading →
I have an old car that can be quite temperamental. So much so that she has spent most of the last three weeks in various states of repair, resulting in my wings being clipped. She is now repaired—thank goodness for professionals who understand cars—and so today I disappeared into the forest at Craigallian for a... Continue Reading →
for a time, a long time— the time it took to watch someone i love die and the time it took to fold a prayer into seventy times seven unforgiving squares slipping it into the back pocket of my life, i thought that hope was a soft thing, a thing that i had to keep... Continue Reading →
i don’t know when i learnt how to do this, this soft-subtle warfare that falls from my tongue. how i send words out of my mouth, after letting each one climb rough-shod up the rose-dotted trellis of my throat, without allowing them to pick a single bloom first, only thorns. in my defence, sometimes i... Continue Reading →
my brother found me walking in a meadow. the sky was big, clouds climbing all the way to the very top where God sits and has his tea, deciding on all the things people pray for—deciding who gets a miracle and who does not. i never knew that my brother liked meadows, never knew that... Continue Reading →
after the meltdown, a few days later it takes a while to descend a mountain carrying wisdom in your hands. if they tell you otherwise, they are lying, do not believe them—it is heavy the road slippery, treacherous when you are walking for two, holding hands. another thing that they do not tell you when... Continue Reading →
it doesn’t just arrive on your doorstep, delivered in the baby hours of the day fresh by a tired man, truck purring in the road a thing idling away, a life ticking. the sidewalks here are dirty. proof that people live here, and dogs—but they know more, always do. things breathe here, are they alive... Continue Reading →
may kind things,honest things,soft things, things that know how to cut fleshfrom gristle, truthfrom lie, find their way past me, as they climb up my throaton strong, bare feet. brave,may they fly,fall, crawl, if they must. find the hungerfind the holes. the placewhere everythingsmells like giving up. there, may they be full. enough. one more... Continue Reading →
vertel vir my hier waar ons sit, skaam mekaar se vrees ontbloot. flardes, flenters gebruikte liefde, oud en stukkend aan mekaar verkoop as iets wat dit nie is nie, nooit sal wees nie, nuut en wit. ongeskond. ek en jy. en ken jy die roep van die tarentaal as die karoo son sak vir haar... Continue Reading →
