Victoria Williams: 0247

Alan is just a sad daydream I have these days.
Men are just sad daydreams that I have these days.

K:2

By Night I Came To An Open Womb by Gary Cummiskey

Eva Jackson: 0075

Keegin Munsamy: 0012

One of those German Philosophers 

He saw us take him.
And when we returned.
He didn’t come back.

Victoria Williams: 0246

The cinema is where I go to open my eyes and be emptied of everything I have, until life cannot go on as before.

Please Do Not Poke Your Nails In To Calabash

This Girl Can’t Be Blamed For Her Beauty by Gary Cummiskey

Eva Jackson: 0074

Keegin Munsamy: 0011

An Italian-found Name

Again it was No and then Yes. But she came and then she said she had to go. But she stayed. She saw him for the last time in this burning mess. We didn’t quite know it was going to be the last time. I knew it would eventually come upon us. And it was that day. For once I didn’t see or know where her bag was. He was gone and I forgot about it.

Victoria Williams: 0245

I tell the usher, I love people, but you will have to threaten me to make me feel it.

C:4

Spooks Haunt The Master’s Master Plan by Gary Cummiskey

Eva Jackson: 0073

Keegin Munsamy: 0010

The Next Track

The song is skipping.

I think there is something wrong.

I take the album from her bag.

Wipe the disc.

 It still skips.

This is what you get for R50.

Victoria Williams: 0244

It can’t just be the money, but the two richest boys I knew are both in the sky now. One in a penthouse, one in a bell tower. I look up from the street and see a martini glass balanced on a balcony railing, and a slim brown hand next to it, contemplating whether to flick.

B

Focus on Dye Hard Press by the Centre for African Poetry

"This issue of African Poetry focuses on Gary Cummiskey’s Dye Hard Press, as part of a planned regular feature highlighting the work of book traders, agencies, educational institutions, publishers and bloggers with a notable commitment to African poetry."

Eva Jackson: 0072

I'm strong in a
nother universe
If you need me there for
A certain function,
One of thousands,
I slot into place.

Here I am up at night
Getting weaker on purpose
Only so I can be more useful
In a separate world.

Keegin Munsamy: 0009

Butterfly Kisses

To this day I don’t know. Happy Father’s Day and daddy. How did I do this? What did I do? Then the card and that picture. She was the one in that dream of the black guitar. The second song on that bargain album is with butterflies and kisses. She comes up to me with a picture frame and a hug but in that moment I can see the guardian spirit that lingers to protect the two of them. I told her once that she was my seeing eye. As the song plays she strums the guitar and then a smile.

Although she had no memory she still wrote down roses, cars, horses, sleep, kung fu, socks, record players, dance, guitar, beach and tattoos. She came once and stood by the burning mess. We both sensed that night her bag was going to burn. This is the gift she gave me and we could not watch it burn. She held her bag tight until the track skipped to the next song.

Victoria Williams: 0243

It’s easy to write and promise these things, in letters to people you’ll never meet or see again.

Lovely Cape Jams