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Leafprint
Secret light of plants Pathways connecting life Osmotic breath Source, resource, coursing Through all our veins. February 2020 Photo description: The underside of a pawpaw leaf about 60 cms wide, spread like a green parasol against the Durban summer sky. The veins are illuminated like yellow latticework across the 7 palmate lobes.
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Heartrest
Heartrest Heartrest in the curve of a broken shell and the vanishing point of beach and ocean. January 2020 Photo description: The weathered skeleton of an uprooted casuarina tree lies across golden sand. In the background, a line of pale dunes and a mound of natural forest abut the estuary mouth. A distant line of surf breaks beneath a vast blue sky, streaked with feathery cloud. Photo: Umtamvuna estuary 12 January 2020
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Jade vine
Dusk invites Tumescent tongues To delve for nectar Seducing the jade vine Till waxy flowers droop Their heads, Anoint their pollinator The bat, who bears unseen A crown of golden grain Message of life Between generations. Note: The jade vine reproduces through chiropterophily, that is pollination by bats. Nectar bats are attracted to flowers with luminous petals, large blossoms, fruity aromas, and lots of nectar. They have long tongues and can hover like hummingbirds. The bats poke their tongues in for nectar, causing the flowers to tip down and drop pollen on the bats’ heads. Photo description: A close-up of the waxy bright blue-green, scoop-shaped flowers of the jade vine,…
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From the earth
Ages are cradled here In my unheld hand Seed, shell, stone Scratching my soles My heart needed To smell soil again. 9 August 2020 Photo description: Fingers outstretched from a hand loosely clutching dry, crumbly soil that is full of decomposing organic matter. A sprinkle of late afternoon sunlight catches a few specks of earth.
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Under the palm
White glare of winter sun Glints the fronds of coconut palms They shake and shimmy from the shoulders At the base of one sits a charcoal man gesticulating fiercely, forearm jerking hand to mouth As if signing hunger to the horizon. July 2020 Photo description: The narrow silver-grey trunk of a tall palm tree stretches up to its umbrella of leaves, the circle of fronds fanned out against an azure sky.
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Harbour walk
Shadows cast light On layers we might overlook Holding us with patterns Where we would not pause. Photo description: A small section of Durban harbour at a 45-degree angle, looking down from the harbour wall. Winter sunlight throws a sharp silhouette of the bright blue wrought iron railings onto the wall. The filigree stencil of shadows forms a diagonal line between the rough grey concrete and the velveteen water rippling from deep indigo to dappled cobalt.
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Heartlight
If I could fold your light into the petals of my heart it would look like this. June 2020 Photo description: Close-up of a yellow rose in full bloom. The petals curl softly around its centre. Deep orange shadows contrast with sun-tinged edges. One rose outlasted the bunch my sister sent for my birthday.
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Remnants
Recall the smallest detail Overlooked in the lost world of before The cheese and oil beneath the fingernails The remnants of the bread Torn seven times in half Passed from hand to mouth The question left unasked Until the never of next time. April 2020 Photo description A morsel of blonde ciabatta with a golden crust on the edge of a white china plate. Beside it, a faint smear of balsamic vinegar and a few specks of peppercorn. Seen from above, on the grey slats of a weathered wooden table. Royal Natal Yacht Club garden, March 2020, the week lockdown was announced.
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Confronting violence against LGBTIQ+ people in African contexts
Agenda is a journal published by Agenda Feminist Media in South Africa. The peer-reviewed journal was established in 1987. It airs dialogue and debate between academic gender researchers, activists within the women’s movement and broader civil society. It is also committed to developing scholarship and mentoring emerging writers in the field. Deborah has contributed to several issues over the years and guest edited two, including Volume 34, Issue 2 (2020) on the theme of addressing violence against people who do not confirm to sexual and gender norms in Africa.
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Thorn
In the vastness of this Speak for no one But do not be silent Describe your fragment The thorn on the aloe That you cannot touch The view from the door through which you may not walk The wailing of your heart On the wind. March 2020 Photo description: A close shot of the red-tipped thorns and grey-green leaves of a giant aloe, photographed in a Harare garden in March 2020, when COVID-19 hit Africa.
