University Of Stellenbosch

A lovely collection of poems including a few of mine including a rather complimentary crit from Finuala Dowling from the University of Stellenbosch Site - and again  also music here

Christmas Day 2009 – Kenilworth Centre

The combination of stifling tar-miraged heat

and deserted concrete.



No cars in the parking lot this midday.



Seeking a certain silent atmosphere

and the poetic sense of an apocalypse,

I intentionally stop my car,

get out,

inhale absences,

wonderfully alone

in the vacant centre

of this usually frantic lot.



Around the corner a murmuring.

Street kids dobbeling,

unaware of my meditations.



One hawks, snatches a coin,

hits and curses a littley, bullying.

The dice roll again.

The circle stays closed.



Torn, ashamed whitey,

I avert my eyes, continue walking, stiffly,

disabled by propriety

and Englishness

and forces darker than all Africa,



but steel enters

my heart, my will this day.

Determined, isolated,

desperate to bless;

welcome steel.

An Honest Day’s work

Forbes.com headline – GM says Facebook ads don't work, pulls $10 million account



That sly old fox,

my grandfather,

appeared in a dream last night,

the old jawline uncorrupted by time,

the shoes firmly shone,

the light, modern, gentle, humorous;

and before the twinkling here endeth the lesson

and a three rand note tucked into my lapel

I somehow gathered that

today's youth had missed the point,

with their jolly internet surfing

and did I realize that

the economy is built on an honest day's work?



All this crouching around the blue screen of death meant

that someone had to be brought in to peel the potatoes

(probably outsourced to the Japs by now)

and we all need to pull finger

and the good book says

them that doesn't work doesn't eat!



There was a gem of wisdom in all of that,

but sadly it went unheeded

and i still googled the quote afterwards

and emailed the poem.



Some kids never listen

I tell you!

(The economy does seem to be in crisis though, doesn't it?)