saturday night freedom

We drink, we drank, got drunk
Couldn't speak right
Tongues turned to sullen slugs in our mouths








So we dance, we danced, got down
Squirming ridiculously
Like there were live fish in our pockets

So we laugh, we laughed, out of breath
Looking at ourselves
In bodies so limited, with souls so free...


written by absolutely wonderful friend, mosadzi_Julia after a night of much laughter, dance, singing... and wine...

dwaal & blues...

dwaal

Jy dwaal in die strate
opsoek na ‘n plek sonder wind
Jy bibber van die koue
al wat jy het is ‘n gaatjies kombers

Jou hande ratel
en jou stem is skril
Jy kyk my nie in die oë nie
want jy is bang ek gaan jou sien

Jy wandel saam met swendelaars
kruip langs hulle in snags
Jy het niks om te eet
nie eens ‘n bietjie welsyn kos

Jy is alleen,
uit eie keuse
Jy wil nie beroep maak
op die uitreikende hande van die wêreld nie

Jy is ‘n gees van armoede
Jy het te veel seergekry
te veel keer nakend gestaan
Jy wil net nie meer gesien word nie;

Jy is ek,
en ek is jy


written by an enthusiastic & talented Martie Jones, from Brits

Blues

“Every dog has its day”
From day one at school
Our teacher made us
Repeat the cliché’
Day after day
And convinced us
Idioms are made
Of real-life observations
Then I grew up to discover
In the calendar of real-life-experience
Some dogs have no days
They can claim to belong to them
But all dogs do have days
When everything is blue
Cloudy and flimsy

At some points in my life
Loneliness is a condition
I cannot avoid to experience
But solitude is a state I choose
Above idletalk and uselesscompany
Like all mortal beings
I am sometimes overcome
By sleep and slumber
And out of no volition
I wake up in a fizzy state of mind
But reflection is the exercise my mind
Select above hopeless agonizing and paralyzing anxiety

Sometimes I just find myself
Raising questions without answers
And then I search for answers
Beyond here and now
With fallen knees and a prostrated head
Via praises and salutations
Open palms and supplications
Watery eyes and expectant ears
I dig deep within me
To pour my soul out
The way I found
Those who came before me doing
But meditation is a voluntary act
I immerse myself in to listen
To the talk of The Spirit
And reading is a journey I opt for
To walk in the company of great minds

AND… blues is the speech I choose
To speak with one tongue
The cry and ecstasy
On the tongues of all souls
That shares the planet with me
And when I go into the heart of blues
I speak for all species in the universes
And the earth speak our songs
The wind carries our hopes
Fire breathe our dreams
Water and air too
The spirit as well

I want to cheer the world
With merry symphonies
And drown sorrows in a pool
Of jubilant melodies
To be forever on a joyful vibe
I will withdraw from the hurly burley
Of everyday experience
Into the world of bliss
I will lock myself in a joyful mood
Belting happy tunes all the time
Humming blues as mellow
As tranquil as the quiet night
When the clouds are clear
And the tone of the sky’s blue is vivid
Let me check the colors of each night
Let me count the peaceful sleeps
Each night has for me and my neighbors
Let me see the colors of the days
Let me color the number of the days
Let me number the favors
Each day has for me and my folks
Let me decide which blue is for the favors
And which shade of blue colors is for the disfavors
Nay let me explore
The colors of my moods….my soul
Half-moon night and blue and smiling sky
Blue moon and staring stars
Vintage blue and stormy seas
Cloudy and turbulent blue
Oceanic blue and deep blue
Sky blue and tranquil blue
Dark blue and purple blue
As manifold
As the variant shades
Of the blue tones
That colors the soul
I count the blues
As many as each day
Has its own color
And as countless as
The amount of people
With troubles so many
They cannot afford
To give verbal tapestry
To the blues too deep-rooted
To be captured in tunes
I count the wordless hums
Of sighs whistling heartbeats
Of a people in search of a voice
To speak in many voices and yet
Capture in one voice
A sea of experiences too vast
To put to language
How many tongues
Shall I need?
To tell you
Of the blues I know
And how much breath shall I need
To put to song
These countless
Shades and tones of blues
That some souls
Have to endure
All at once
Shall I sing for you?
As much as my lungs
Allows me to give breath
To the myriad of blues
Home blues
Work blues
Money blues
Women blues
Men blues
Children blues
Saturday blues
And Evening blues
Sunday after Church blues
Monday morning
Blues
Thursday afternoon blues
Wednesday early hours blues
Tuesday midnight blues
Friday no pay blues
Midmonth late night blues
And Month-end low salary blues
Wine blues and debts blues
Spirit and gins blues
Jinns and spirits blues
No home blues -----homelessness blues
No belonging blues
Exile blues
Vagrant blues
Migrant blues
Refugee blues
No job blues Blowjob blues
Joblessness blues
No money blues ------ penniless blues
No women blues
No children blues------barrenness blues
These blues as many as the sorrows and joys of life
Seize and ferry me to faraway zones
Where you and me and the whale and the rhino
And the bird and the gazelle breathe one spirit
Where the air we breathe is not throttled by petrol fumes
And the waters we drink
Are not contaminated by nuke fluids

© Mphutlane Wa Bofelo

honeymoon morning glory

last night you unpacked
the anatomy of my body
i know not whether it was
your voice or your touch
the tenderness of your hands or
the glow of eyes and
the jubilant sigh of ecstasy
that reached to parts of the man
i barely knew resided in me
passionately waiting to be explored
but with surety i do know
yesternight you took me
to realms i thought only existed
in the world of fantasy and dreams

and when the morning came
you took me out of myself
into the secrets of your body
i will never know whether it is my heart
my body or my soul or my mind
that began the journey to
parts of the woman
that revealed inside you
the glory of lust fed on love
but i now know the face
of a morning glory
on an elongated week
of passionate lovemaking
towards the end of a holiday
in the middle of a honeymoon
the lovers wish to make eternal

(c) mphutlane wa bofelo

posted by mphutlane wa bofelo

letters to tshego still continue so beautifully - wow...