Poems
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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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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.
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Love in the time of Corona – picture us
Unframed Picture us Unframed, reframed See us in all the places that we could not be Prohibited, inhibited Shapes connecting dying breath to life through plastic, steel, sweat, despair Hearts and faces with hidden bruises Shadows around a grave. Remember us In queues, on lines Recall us in all the ways we could not be Separated. Resegregated. Dimly distant in each other’s eyes and our own minds Footprints washed away before they could be followed. Trust and truth erased. Watch us Sinking. Rising Deeply hungering to hold and heal Hunkering with blame and rage Drunk on defiance and compliance Passing bucks. Creating decoys. Excuses to deploy. Imagine us Unmasked.…
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Love in the time of Corona – looking out
Between When I look up, I see infinite iterations. And then my heart is free to fill the sky. When I look down, I see a world made small and mean by hate and fear, where I cannot move or touch. I will not share a photo of down. Down is your windowless bedroom and bathroom, beside the railway and the endless earthquake of trucks. There is a world between us but we both may hear the birds. Song of the Birds What a paradox, to feel connected and belonging to the sky and cut off so completely from the earth. I have a home and must cover my face…
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Love in the time of Corona – locked down
Love in the time of Corona – locked down It is a time of suffocation. Under boots and knees In blood and water Behind masks and machines By speaking and silencing Deaths through which we cannot accompany each other Beyond virtual spaces, bought from billionaires Who rent us the freedom to be sold. Suffocation of the spirit Where we teach our children How not to die by touching My children might learn more from me By the embracing and letting go of love Than by this clinging to a singular fear And the flinging away of imagination. The world on my phone and out of my window imagines ways to…
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Love – and death – in the time of Corona
The process to establish the protocol for allowing a packet to leave the building involved six people. They sprayed me, the packet, and each other, passing the item through three doors, standing it on a table, then on a shelf and taking it outside. I appreciated the precautions but I think someone slipped into the building unsprayed while we were dancing.
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Love in the time of Corona – early days
The weekend after the first case of Coronavirus was confirmed in KwaZulu-Natal, I travelled to Zimbabwe, not knowing it would be the last time we were allowed to leave the country for nearly two years. Harare was ahead of Durban with news and sanitiser. 'Where are you from?' they asked at the airport. Durban. 'Spray her again' yelled a fellow passenger...
