1
Charity remains the most violent
And lasting
Form of colonialism.
2
No gift comes without
A future request.
3
When people say, it is
From the Lord, know that
They will be asking something
Of you soon.
4
The people that hated Fidel
While he was alive
Will still hate him
When he is dead.
5
There will always be
One impimpi
One Judas
One family member
One flesh and blood
Like you
6
Newspapers say state capture
Began under Zuma.
History shows state capture
Began in 1652
When van Riebeeck arrived.
It’s also known
As colonialism.
7
People are braver in crowds.
At home they can change
The channels
To soap operas
And sport.
8
The Nobel Prize for literature
And the literary system
Of awards
And hierarchies
Does not affect
The quality of your writing
Nor the essence of what
You say
Nor is it strictly useful
To your content
Or even your readers'
Lives.
You will miss
The fact of your
Unimportance
Afterwards.
Still so many crave for it
And the violent gaze
Of recognition
Subconsciously
Do we want a knighthood
Too?
9
For every poem / poetic line
There will be ten
Exaggerated hashtags
10
For every original hashtag
There will be one hundred commercial
Adaptations.
11
People still think sport
Is the greatest nation builder
In our spectator democracy
Followed of course
By special holidays
12
Before the revolution gets underway
The powers that be
Have already changed their outfits
And are leading
The revolution
Against themselves
Staging
A surprisingly peaceful
Takeover.
13
People do not have fun
In learning.
Things that are not fun
Become violent
Starting with
The heated words
Of our egos
14
Learning should be free.
Data should be free, as it is
Another gateway to the book
Of the world.
Even the instagram pics
Have their own
Reality conveyed
The sharp points
Of captured light
And delineations of form
And the passing colour of
Being alive
Which can’t be summarised
In theses
But are found
With other realisations
The almost mundane
Beautiful insights
In the fourth dimension
Of all things
Suspended in the seemingly
Infinite
Online
15
Most importantly, living itself
Should be free
Followed immediately
By a permanent home
With a name suggesting
We are here to stay
Living
And at times
In love.
16
While modern art
Discusses the theory
And pictures are based
On a theory instead of
A theory based
On what is actuality
People take selfies
In varying perspectives
Of the miracle
Of light
Not thinking of the
Overused words
Truth and beauty
Or worse
Immortality.
17
Hatred will continue
In new forms
Long after the flashy
Takeover of all old
Ideas
And the rebranding
Of the dictatorship.
18
Be here
Look out the window
Everyday
Get out the house
Be on the street
Walk from place to place
An exile from every
Complacent truth
Awareness of your
Loneliness
Has its rewards
When you get back
Eat your phutu and black tea
Use words that describe
This actuality
Rather
Than start using your friends
Euphemisms.
19
A house without walls
Poetry
Is still the only place
I can stay in you
And not have to
Pay rent
Or dictate
Our lives
Or be
Dictated too.
20
Write about
Things you know
Know about
Things you write.
21
Language itself never does anything bad
To anyone.
We do it
With our open mouths
22
The trends will come and go
But the washing never ends.
archive - issue 18
- All
- AUDIOVISUAL
- POETRY
- WRITING
- Default
- Title
- Date
- Random
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10 Characters
By Anton KruegerNurse Marie Her lapel is a little faded and her lipstick slightly smudged in the corner of her mouth. “It’s an easy job,” she…Read More- WRITING
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A Cry for Help
By Ross FlemingI come from a long line of great worriers. My earliest memory is of Father, the morning paper spread out before him, tearing his…Read More- WRITING
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A pair of star cross’d lovers take their life.
By Lance RautzhanA selection from a series of polaroids and paintings "We are Definitely Heroes" that calls into question our self-obsessed nature through the lens of…Read More- AUDIOVISUAL
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a perspective
By Lucca Munnikshe’s a contradiction:anxious yet fierce andchallenging yet sensitive. she carries emotions that she hides from people,but then bluntly spurts them out when it gets…Read More- POETRY
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A shortish life in 15 shortish paragraphs
By Maren BodensteinA shortish life in 15 shortish paragraphs 1. Birth From the start it was all hard work. Later her blue-eyed brothers and sisters made…Read More- WRITING
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All the World
By Jeannie Wallace McKeownHours spent dreaming herself a role in an infinite movie reel of lives; string theory says she’s living them; somewhere she moved to a…Read More- POETRY
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Commuting in Jozi
By PALESA RAMEKOANEComing from Polokwane, a small town in Limpopo, Johannesburg is a big city to me. It is a congested, confusing, concrete jungle compared to…Read More- WRITING
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Constellations
By Caitlin StobieFor Ryan We were meant to be characters: two queer geeks with a Tarot set. Setting: the day of the velveteen stage,…Read More- POETRY
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de-identified
By Kirsten Stollede-identified examines the impact of facial recognition technology on individual privacy. Using augmented portraits of 19th century women and an imagined narrative, de-identified explores how…Read More- AUDIOVISUAL
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gogogo is in love
By esethu esethuREMEMBERING HERE an excerpt from "A Long Story Short", an unpublished novella It was not always as contaminated, the nature of the resentments…Read More- WRITING
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I am very angry
By James Chapangara MugabePart 1 - Introduction Please let me rant! I am angry, very angry! I am angry with you Comrades Ja! Ek is gatvol! Ini ndakadumbirwa…Read More- POETRY
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I doodled your name by force
By Naggayi Lydia SanyuI doodled your name by force. Yes please. I was not going to be that girl who'd pass through her teenage years without ever…Read More- WRITING
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Joseph: Starlin
By Joseph ClaassenJoseph: Starlin He rolls up on me while I’m whatsapping calls softly from the side to not scare meout here in the city’s dukderma man…Read More- POETRY
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Kinoti's Flower Bud
By Michael ThuoA green writer is one in constant motion. This motion is in the state of mind: seeking ideas, inspiration and appealing to the yet…Read More- WRITING
-
La femme obscur
By Lunette Elle WarrenShe’s a natural brunette. She has an incurable case of Resting Bitch Face. She’s a poet. She’s a dirt road that stretches into the…Read More- POETRY
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Listening at the edges
By Robin Dunn1. I hid in the church after they left. Some of the stained glass had been broken, and the plain sunlight bled into…Read More- WRITING
-
Meeting Kasiobi
By Mariam SuleFew things have evoked my empathy like the evening I spent with a beautiful man named Kasiobi who has lost an ability that I…Read More- WRITING
-
Mostly about a Beetle
By Anthea GarmanKen’s red beetle 1963 – I am three years old. I pose against the beetle in the way I have seen my mother do. Fat…Read More- WRITING
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My Grandmother's Name
By Louella SullivanIn her 70s the rigid clack of a label maker stamped out her neat name to be stuck spirit-level straight on cupboards, Tupperware, biscuit…Read More- POETRY
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Nairobi Is A Quick Lover
By Waiganjo NdiranguFirst flash: a business-bright billboard smile; A suit far too neat for the jam on Jogoo Road; A suit too well knit, too well…Read More- POETRY
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Sir Churge, Father Obsolescence
By Eugene MotsotsaThere’s an old proverbial postulate that the commercial competitive market model seeks to create the best possible goods at the lowest possible prices (now,…Read More- WRITING
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The Boys and Girls of the Burn Uncalendar
By Team TarbabyImage GalleryRead MoreView the embedded image gallery online at:Character resonating out hard into the environs: with physical manifestations in Heaven and Earth; for better or worse; meteorologically, geologically, technologically; synthesising…
https://www.itch.co.za/archive/issue-18/item/1923-some-things-about-this-year#sigProId2cbf4bd9ab- AUDIOVISUAL
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The Garden's Memory
By Louella SullivanA garden is harder than a marriage you can’t throw sex or wine at it to pacify the wilderness that threatens. A garden…Read More- POETRY
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The Gathering
By Emmanuel Uweru OkohNow I ask... What do you see? Eyes with shades of variedness Eyes of diverse vision A hundred feet in this room A…Read More- POETRY
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The prisoner
By Carla ChaitThe clink-clink of chains along the corridor of area 354 is indicative of the approach of a prisoner. A prisoner is approaching and I…Read More- WRITING
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The Running Man
By Theodore SeneneIf you happened to be seated in the third coach of the 10 o'clock train heading west, watching the luscious green countryside flash by,…Read More- WRITING
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Tom and Flo Go to the Races
By Lester WalbrughBy the time they reached one hundred kilometres outside Kamieskroon, on the way to Cape Town, the rhythmic tikketu-tikketu of train meeting track had…Read More- WRITING
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Kyle Allan
Kyle Allan is a 29 year old poet, recording artist and events organiser. He has published a book of poetry, " House without walls" in 2016 and in 2013 released an album titled " Influences". He has organised numerous events including most recently the UHAF ( Underberg Himeville Arts Festival) fest in 2016 in the southern Drakensberg.
