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Zywa Nov 2023
I tell everything.

You look at me guiltily --


I understand you.
Poem "en as ek klaar my verhaal vir jou vertel het" (2008, "and when i have finished telling you my story", 2011, Ronelda Kamfer)

Collection "Loves Tricks Gains Pains in the 0s"
Zywa Aug 2023
Talking isn't easy,

so each of us is often --


in our own bell-jar.
Children's book "Haaientanden" ("Shark's teeth", 2019, Anna Woltz), chapter "75.4 kilometers"

Collection "Shelter"
Zywa Jun 2023
People in the street

are making jokes with a laugh --


that they give to me.
Collection "Bruises"
Zywa May 2023
At the reception

I am bouncing everyone --


like silly putty.
Collection "Blown sand"
Zywa Mar 2023
Drinking tea in the rain
in the smell of rain
plain tea, plain rain
but, the two of us, full
of expectation: touch me
touch me, feel me

Lips, hands, all
of you, dear darling
touch me, touch me
nicer much nicer
than dreaming
dreaming the past

If you like you can
silently shout a stick
into the sky, climb
and climb higher, higher
sliding looser, looser
down and up

higher higher up
colours around the sun
diving deep into them
wallowing and wrapping yourself
and sparking sparks
from my hands

But stay with me
want me, want to
see and feel me
keep me whole
see me, feel me
touch me, touch me
The closing song of "Tommy" (1969, Pete Townshend, The Who), "We're not gonna take it", ends with the exclamation "See me, feel me, / touch me, heal me"

For Maria Godschalk

Collection "On living on"
Zywa Mar 2023
I don't know how much

longer, but now, I'm with you --


now, I laugh with you.
Fro Maria Godschalk

Collection "Ifless"
Zywa Mar 2023
Quietly she looks

at me -- a comb through my mind,


waving in her wind.
"Wilde gewassen" ("Wild crops", 2014, Bruno van Imschoot)

Collection "Loves Tricks Gains Pains in the 0s and 10s"
Zywa Feb 2023
We'll talk again soon,

late this afternoon: at night --


when you are back home.
On the other side of the world
Poem "tegenwerelden II, 22/10/- 11:55" ("opposite worlds II, 22/10/- 11:55", 2013, Hans Groenewegen)

Collection "On the fly"
Zywa Jan 2023
Flowers in the park:

people are strolling around --


opening themselves.
Collection "WoofWoof"
neth jones Jan 2023
c o n t a c t
up-stairs roof-top
toe-tips the-edge long-drop
flourish/ball-lightning echo-foxtrot
plunder/of the gods/thunderous once more
glance-down and it’s merry-go-round
vertigo      lost - and - found
you shout my name
c o n t r a c t
impact   cement
face-torn to shape a smile
laugh      'after a while crocodile'
; the last witty thought my mind does attract
devil  pact         and  the  gravity
mortally  i n v e s t e d
arrested     now
c o n t a c t
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