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POETRY

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  • contemporary foolery

    By Norbert Herrmann
    Startup Scaleup DigihubInnovation Technological RevolutionWeb 2.0 Transfer Internet of ThingsBig Data Smart Devices Agile SphinxAugmented Reality Autonomous DrivingEnergy Transition Industry 4.0Earth System Analyses Intelligent HomeFoster Framework Corresponding CloneIntegration Co-creation HackathonArtificial Intelligence Self-Learning BabylonWe accelerate to tenfold extraterrestrial speedWhile being soaked…
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  • Fangs

    By Celeste Morton
    When you really smile,your fangs show at the side of your mouth, This is my favorite way to see you, In profile When you’re driving
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  • Le Pendu

    By Charika Swanepoel
    Life and death: they are one, at core entwined. Rainer Maria Rilke, 1922   I At first I thought, this must be midlife, but then again, it’s been only twenty-two years. I thought perhaps this must be the afterlife but…
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  • Postcard

    By T. Michael Mboya
    The Wedgwood Bed and Breakfast, Melville, Johannesburg. 10.10.2016   Are my eyes opening in a dream? Or is a dream opening my eyes?   The furniture in the room floats In steel–grey half–light   The side table swims towards me…
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  • She and I

    By Judy Chinel Gasgonia
    Did I just see her smirk at me?   Or was it a look of contempt?   I looked at her again, at my reflection, staring blankly at me.   Then we both smiled. "It is show time," I said.…
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  • The Catching Game

    By Kamanee Govender
    They tell me to stay positive To look up and look forward Not to bring the darkness with me wherever I go But do they know there was a time when I was only brightness When I laughed when they…
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  • The past

    By Sarah Frost
    What were you thinking, mother When you handed me a package with a watch in it, marking my tenth birthday, as I came to your bed that lonely winter morning?   The Rothko painting in the corner an abstract unreachable…
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Tuesday, 12 January 2016 15:06

eGolizing

By 
Visions of Sissis and Bhoties fluster my mood
as they almost block my route
while I drive on Golden Highway to Johannesburg

Township beauties in Eldorado’s street
they need to eat - right now - not in a week
for even flavoured condoms do not feed
who can tell which life to live - to live and still stay negative?

I turn and I see Eastgate mall
shop next to shop next to shop, they offer it all
people are lured away from life’s foundations
striving for cash’s alternations

Rich suburbs are home to
fear, that is soaking in from the banned outside
fear, that is not telling black from white
fear, that is public relations for armed response companies
even in hipster’s cafés you can sense nightmare’s breath

Disembarking at the taxi rank
as massiv murmur hits my tattered flank
people preach of a golden future everybody knows it will never exist
this poisonous optimism is one of mzanzis life-sustaining myths

I finally enter the centre, I cross Gandhi Square
I’m an anxious alien - as I am perfectly aware
passing Jeppe Street, no welcoming word can be heard
but then he is spouting off, the Johannesburg nerd

“If only you open your eyes, you will find a lot
open-minded smiles and dignity in this vivid hot spot.
helping hands, high-rises, politics, mind-blowing thunder
in Johannesburg you just can’t stop to wonder.”
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Published in POETRY
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Norbert Herrmann

Norbert Herrmann has been living in Berlin | Germany and Johannesburg | South Africa for several years. He produces audio-podcasts (tuneplaces.com) as well as short short stories.

Website: tuneplaces.com/johannesburg/
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