Ambition by Aryan Kaganof

When I grow up I wanna be a screensaver.

Crooked Broom Blues by The Litchis

My girl got a crooked broom
She ain’t sweep in many a moon
This shack ain’t a home
No this shack ain’t a home

My wife don’t stir no stew
Table is bare and pots are few
She ain’t roll no bread
No she ain’t roll no bread

My woman don’t hang no line
Empty wash stone suits her fine
She ain’t lift no rock
No she ain’t lift no rock

My girl don’t weed the plot
Don’t care that the beans will rot
Her hands ain’t touch no dirt
No her hands ain’t touch no dirt

My wife got a cold oven
Burns no coal when I need lovin’
Her cot ain’t ever been mine
No her cot ain’t ever been mine

My woman’s been all over town
Her skinny legs are on the run
She’s gonna find her a new man
Yeah, she’s gonna find her a new man

I ain’t gonna miss her pretty face
A woman should know her place
Yeah, a woman should know her place

Victoria Williams: 0040

Will people please stop asking me about work. Please just stop. I am trying to find a job - trying so hard, but I just can’t find someone to employ me. Maybe it’s because I’m impersonal and aloof, or because I’m not very photogenic, or because I’ve taken to dressing as a Polyana peasant in mint green sleeves and blue bolero with gold piping (divine, divine). But these people are so blind not to see the raw materials I’m offering, and next time I’m going to take them by the lapels and TELL THEM:

“I don’t want to work in your stupid store/factory/serving hatch – just give me your money and I will use it for the greatest good; the good of humanity. I will become the Holy Fool*, dressed in masks and chains of iron, wandering the countryside, improvising prayers, performing the sacred dances and entering states of religious ecstasy, delivering alms to the poor - saving the land from the antichrists. I would also not mind being a shepherd. I will do all this out of love for the people, and the world, and costumes, yet you will not even let me stack your shelves for a pittance. *Sigh* Do you hear me? *SIGH*”

*Pictured

Couple by Tree by Jenny Kellerman Pillay

On The Surface by Aryan Kaganof

they say beauty
is “only” skin deep
i ask you
what does
“only” mean?

Visit Kagablog HERE

Gary Cummiskey's April in the Moon-Sun Available As Free Ebook

April in the Moon-Sun by Gary Cummiskey, published by Dye Hard Press in 2006 and now out of print, is an astonishing cut-up prose sequence with delirious images shifting between Johannesburg and London, capturing the instances of experience through a simultaneous and multi-layered kaleidoscope rather than by linear perception.

It also formed the basis of a short film by Aryan Kaganof, called Velvet.

April in the Moon-Sun can be downloaded for free from HERE

Read Pravasan Pillay's review of it HERE

Victoria Williams: 0039

Dear Friendless Loners of the World,

Alright, that’s it. I’m addressing the hardcore embittered division. We all know we don’t want each other, but can we go on pretending that we don’t need each other too?

Listen, I’m ill and a strange mist is affecting my vision. I don’t think I’ll live to complete the manifesto so here’s the thing: If we staged a mass protest I don’t think anyone would listen. If we organised a mass suicide would anyone notice? Would they?

But what if suddenly we all started carrying membership cards – or is that too obvious? Maybe if we all had a special tattoo? Or badge? In any case, what if we suddenly had a universal symbol under which to unite? We all know there is no conspiracy between us, but it will be fairly easy to convince the general public that there is. And you know what - it will drive them crazy.

We will nod to each other on the street, and maybe wink and smile enigmatically. We will be coy and infuriating like so many virgins. And passers-by will look on puzzled. They will be enraged by our aloofness, they will be jealous of us and our unity, and maybe, they will also desire us?

So I think it’s time some of us starting taking our personal hygiene seriously again. Yes I admit, I am as guilty as the rest of you… My lonesome peregrines, we are all in this together and there is work to do. Now who wants in?

Your Glorious Leader,
V.W. Williams

Palmer by Ashley Jewnarain

Victoria Williams: 0038

Anton Krueger's New Memoir, Sunnyside Sal

Sunnyside Sal (Deep South) by Anton Krueger

120 pages ISBN: 978-0-9584915-6-3 Price R120

Sunnyside Sal is the story of an unusual friendship between two boys growing up in Pretoria. It's a jauntily narrated memoir set in the tumultuous early 1990s, when a whole generation was discovering that everything they’d been taught to believe was wrong. Fuelled by his reckless bravado and post-punk philosophy, Sal plunges into extreme situations, but his innocent experimentations in rebellion lead him increasingly into hazardous realms. Although ultimately a tragic tale, Sunnyside Sal is borne up throughout by an exuberant humour.

SUNNYSIDE SAL LAUNCHES AT

PRETORIA

Exclusive Books Menlyn
Thursday 18 February 6.00 for 6.30pm
introduced by David Medalie
Tel 012 361 6184/8 menlyn@exclusivebooks.co.za

CAPE TOWN

Book Lounge, Cnr Roeland and Buitenkant Streets
Thursday 4 March 6.00 for 6.30pm
introduced by Toast Coetzer
Tel 021 462 2425 booklounge@gmail.com

DURBAN

Friday 12 March 6.45pm
Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre, UKZN
introduced by Syd Kitchen
Tel 031 2602506/1816 cca@ukzn.ac.za

GRAHAMSTOWN

Friday 19 March 5.30 for 6.00 pm
Reddits, New Street
introduced by Robert Berold
Tel 0823243048 mnrkrueger@gmail.com

Victoria Williams: 0037

On my shelf: four by Sartre, one by Chekhov, one by Turgenev, one by Gorky, one by – yes – Plato. Eight promising spines all lined up in a row. And yet – what is this? Dust?!