Pieces of me

As i attempt to make my mark in this lifetime Let me not dread the little whisper of failure May these precious feet be bold, never to fall In the wake of desire, may it always be for gold In the pursuit of fertile lands, shall i  prosper May i not slumber, may i not let the cards fold In the land where all hope is burnt in the veld May the glorious smoke create a pretty rainbow As we fail to find a lamp in the thick of the night Our eye shall become that of a night predator  May the future be pregnant with endless hope May the sun and stars continue to give light For how long shall we fear to dream?  These dreams have become our worst enemy  Shall we continue to mourn for the long lost?  In the presence of nothingness, we are all lost Will there be a light at the end of the tunnel?  Like the predators, we make darkness a friend  Mbie

I don't think my father was blown away upon hearing that his wife was pregnant again. I do not think he was disappointed either. My parents were a middle class couple with a nice little fenced house, four children and a dog. The 80s must have been a wholesome era. My mother was barely in her thirties but was a responsible and well respected housewife in the community. Here i am, at the ripe age of thirty, and all this is something i can not relate to. Except, perhaps the housewife part, but basically that is all.  My father could provide for all his children, so money was basically not an issue. However, i strongly believe that hearing about a fifth pregnancy from your wife of ten years isnt exactly the highlight of the century. It is news that you take in your stride and just learn to live with. Think of it as buying your first car. The excitement is something that will always make you smile. A second car is great as well. However, when you get to your fifth car, it stops being as...

Noone can ever tell me that wisdom and bravery go hand in hand. My great uncle was a lot of things but wise was not one of them. His official positions in our rural community included village headman and herbalist. Between the two roles he played, i could only trust him with one. Headmanship. This is not because he wasnt a good herbalist, i just was a little sceptical of his unconventional ways of treating people.  My uncle, his son once stayed in bed for a solid fortnight while my great uncle treated his malaria. Growing up in my rural home area meant you had at least once been treated for malaria and also knew someone who had died from it. It was a common ailment, yet so deadly. I was diagnosed with malaria at least twice in my life. My older brother once suffered from something called cerebral malaria which is way worse than the regular one. Legend has it that he, my brother whilst suffering from the deadly disease was given a roasted mealie cob to snack on and he threw it righ...

I feed my cravings and pray for a decent waistline I walk into a room with my head high hoping to outshine I know i deserve nice things without losing a single dime I wish to dance to great music all night and have my gin and lime I want no single wrinkle on me when i travel through time I am woman. I own the fantasy. I make it all mine Give me the highest heels and i will sleep in them all night Grow me the perfect hair and i might just cut it off alright Buy me red lipstick and i will wonder why you didnt think yellow was an option Call me a disappointment and i will not put your name in my love portion I am woman. I confuse myself. That is the only flaw i accept. Find me the world's best author and i might choose not to agree Let me play with your beard and will  take you for a glorious spree Set a table on the floor and i might just lay out your heart on coal Laugh at my bad jokes and i might just see the beauty in your soul I am woman. I enjoy my own company. Ne...

I have never enjoyed celebrating my birthday. Growing up, my birthday was the most celebrated day in my family. I would get the biggest cake ever. Square cake. The cake always had corners. That is alright because nowadays, cakes come in all forms. A few months ago, i saw a cake that resembled a penis. A whole penis shaped cake. Testicles and all. This world can be a very confusing place. Art comes in different forms now and that can be a bit confusing. Even when i was growing up, i always never enjoyed the singing. That high pitched off tune birthday song always had me questioning the vocal talents within my family . Do not get me started on the baloons. However, it is just one day in an entire year. I think the reason i have never really loved my birthday is because I have never been in control of what happens around me on the particular day. I love being fully aware of what is going on around me. It makes me less nervous. Also, i hate parties. Loud music can be really annoying. Peop...

I always refuse to place my spirituality in a box. This is because of a lot of grey areas i have come to witness within religions. Also, i believe that there are a lot of things to believe in so i have decided not to limit myself. When we got married, we moved to Capetown in the Winelands. It was a beautiful small town placed right in the middle of mountains. It was breathtakingly beautiful. It was a high density subarb and very mixed, as far as race was concerned. However, most people had one thing in common. Christianity. The people in this town were Christians. All kinds of Christians. Having been raised as a Christian myself, i kind of could not join any of the denominations because of the language barrier. Afrikaans and Xhosa were foreign languages to me. Often, i would watch people dressed in their best outfits, walking purposefully to their respective houses of worship. The house opposite ours was a place of charismatic worship. Often, the loud music would wake us up on a laz...

When we are old and wrinkles fret our brow When time has put a damper on desire I shall love you more than i do now Even when the years have dwindled passion fire When many moons have slowed our step a bit And grey hairs bespeak our span of days When often quiet around the hearth we sit Upon your face with love i still shall gaze Beyond sweet passion's eager flaming breath A deeper, gentler stronger love will grow My dearest, i shall cherish you till death And after death, my love will further grow Ginny

Tales of the Graveyard A few weeks ago, i attended a funeral. I helped bury a cousin twice removed. I barely new Barbra. Hell, i had never heard of her until the time of her death. I am not even sure i got her name right. However, i had to attend the funeral mainly because my mother was going and i had to attend and be sad. Sad is one thing i can be. Tears would just be dramatic and i am not a dramatic human being. I mean, i have a cousin who just loves to cry at peoples funerals. Once, she passed out at our aunt's funeral yet never did she once pay her a visit when she was sick. However, that is a story of another day. Barbra's funeral was attended by a few people. I have no idea why. The eulogy was in poor taste so i passed time by reading tombstones around. I try to think of the cemetry as a community of people from all walks of life. The young. The old. The poor. The bitter. The rich. All sorts. I would like to think that at some point, they gather around and exchange st...

I let my mind wonder sometimes When sleep lets me down Its never about global warming or politics. Probably because the world has turned all that into one big sad story. Imagine if the world was run by folks that actually do care about us! The sun would probably shine brighter. Birds would bring us fruit covered in morning dew. Football wouldnt exist and war crimes would never be committed repeatedly. Ok, so i let my mind drift off to the puppy i saw crossing the street once. Happy little guy. Didnt even check to see if a car was coming or not. Just crossed away. In my head, it might as well have been whistling. A whistling dog wouldnt raise any eyebrow am sure. Considering that they already wiggle their busy tails. I think of this one mad man that i know. He never talks to anybody. All i know is that he walks a lot. Going nowhere. However, his stride holds so much purpose you would think he has just been summoned by someone important. He hates unnecessary material on him, so his c...

How saddening it easily becomes To watch a star as it shines For it shall soon become irrelevant Come crack of dawn Its magic soon dissapears Like it never glistened Oh! How sad For we all have been stars once Shining bright enough to light up the skies Giving out a radiant sparkle As we count down to day break And we all have been forgotten In other lives, we all are kings We all are warriors. Knights. We all have our moment A chance to shine Then, when it is over We curl up and exchange war stories. Mbie

Start a flame within the depths of my torrid soul A wild bornfire that shall burn like blazing coal Let its raging tongues scald my shiny brown hide Let its hot fumes go down like Bonnie and Clyde The burning soles of my feet shall respond in dance Hairs behind my neck shall rise to the blazing trance My arms shall crave to embrace the blazing fire My heart shall pump  to the newly found desire These fingers shall play a grand tune in response Large eyes wont shut down to a bewitching trance While knees rightfully hold ground never to buckle While my spine arches back, like a glorious oracle When the torrentials of the hearth finds it way in I shall joyously embrace it with grace from  within Bornfires dont catch hearts, yet it has mine for keeps Blood in my veins boil and this blazing  heart leaps Let this blood boil because it keeps me on fire Let the torrents of flames grow, for it is my desire

When death comes knocking at my door clad in urgency, i will do my best to offer an appropriate response. I would not want to be labelled as scaredy pants. Infact, my pants are very brave. Sounds weird now eh? Point is as much as i am not afraid of dying, i sure as hell am not going to give in easily. Let alone go out there hunting death for no reason. I dont see why folk fret so much when death is dropped in a conversation. Most people i associate with are Christians. So its puzzling to hear them speak of death with so much fear! Every Christian spends their entire lifetime on earth in preparation for the second coming of Jesus Christ. We all want to be written in the book of life. Its inevitable, therefore for one not to be under the impression that we all cant wait to die! Technically, the less you live, the less sins you have. So chances of making it to the pearly gates for those that die early are way higher than anybody else's.  I know i would want to walk on the streets of ...

I attended a wedding once where the groom suffered a massive diarrhoea. See, the society has a list of expectations once a person reaches a particular age. Marriage is at the top of that list. This is not determined by your current financial situation or your free will. To the society i know, you become of age, meet a person of the opposite sex that you get to know over a period of a year to two. Take them to meet the family and then get married. In the following year, you should be pregnant. Your baby should be approximately nine months older than your wedding. Then you live happily ever after. So if you are a guy considered as an eligible bachelor, then you should have already located a woman who is willing to settle down with you for pro creation purposes. Failure to do so may carry fatal consequences, including being called names that are even worse than those possesed by our long gone African ancestors. In the end, people end up leading unhappy lives. Not because they did not ch...

The thing about looking for a job is not to expect much from anyone. Mainly because nobody is going to tell you straight up that they cant help you. So you end up with a million promises. So much hope, until one day you realise that not that many people are going to be as helpful as you might have imagined. So there was this man, mid fifties. He happened to know a friend of my mother's friend. So here we got to sit down with him and he really tried to help. For the 1st five minutes of our one hour meeting of cause. For starters,  his suit looked expensive so that gave me a little hope. Then he started telling me about himself. I almost fell off my  chair when he told me that he was good friends with the Prince of Wales. William. The son to queen Elizabeth. See, i have told my fair share of lies,  but that guy was on an entire level of his own. He sat on several company boards and helping me get a job was going to be at the top of his to do list. He told me that his Bla...

Wish List I would love to travel around the world. Probably because there is so much to see out there. Egypt would definately be a place to start. Yes! I happen to find the pyramids fascinating. The country reminds me of a snake park i went to when i was little. They had an Egyptian cobra on display. Thing looked anything but friendly. However, a mean looking snake wouldnt stop me from visiting. I also would love to own a yacht. I dont swim. Large water bodies scare the daylights out of me. I guess it wont exactly be necessary to own one if im not going to spend much time in it. So i will just get myself a dog instead. I would call it something vicious, like Rontu. Its a name i read in a children's book once. It would not be fair to call a dog something like Elijah. He would just die of shame. I would really love to write a book. Definately not a biography unless i really have to. I would want to write something with no tragedy. Light humor is my passion. I guess that is why i f...

When the purple dahlias wither and fade away I speak of cool winds brought by darling May When clouds cover the sky and the hot sun sets I speak of laughter  and winning of daring bets When they make eulogies for the beautiful dead I speak of fairies and keep it in my crippled head I sing beautiful melodies that nobody misses I embrace the heat of the sun for its red kisses I let the winds of August caress my brown cheeks I let not my soul be broken by words and sticks I eat slowly and savour every salty  humble bite I love deeply, for it makes my days oh so bright I speak of purple dahlias like they would never wilt I speak of fairylands like the castles were ever built I speak of gambling like i could afford a single chip I speak of  buds of May like they were mine to keep I speak of my love like it would never burn this heart I speak my memories like they were made of fine art I speak for those whose tongues are frozen in mid air I speak of all goo...