New Contrast 156

South Africa Literary Journal (Vol 39, No 4, Summer 2011)

Harsh brilliant light in Khorix as gives birth to dust in sunbeams at the BP diesel pump.

Tropicana Bar in Khorixas gives birth to mercenaries and evil African and prostitutes and guerrillas.

Gravel roads in Khorixas gives birth to

a white pick up truck (continue reading…)

COFFEE IS FUN

Yigaceffe – an aroma of the fruity apricot, as the word curls around your tongue you taste the smell, (continue reading…)

A MERMAID”S TALE

There is only a scarred wooden desk and an upright plastic chair in the room. (continue reading…)

A man sits at a hotel dining room table. (continue reading…)

GERMS ARE EVERYWHERE -
doorknobs, these sheets, your mouth – they all have been
enswathed.  The sky is full of dust, and what
settles is just a start.  The mind, much too
thin, never helps itself, and the body, although asleep,
is wary on the inside.  These are things
that every werewolf must know well.  Surface wounds
hurt most – no line, no word, is safe – when sliced
from some core, so, when asked why the paradox is dull
and the conceit so cheap, just respond
that I too am open to critique, ready
for some proposal, anything, really,
and that’s how it all began, looking up,
desperate for want of something else, to catch
that wrong thing, the sperm of an idea.

(continue reading…)