South Africa and Nothing Nothing Nothing
by Kiara Braum
It’s not 1994
It’s 2003 just kidding it's 2023 and we’re alive just like that
And we’re not transracial or activists and
Biko was right
I mean Fanon
Actually its not my place to say,
I’m just passing through
It’s just my land, not my place
It’s just my dream of another world
It’s just somewhere to leave and imagine
It’s just that
Anyway we’re alive like its 2023 because it is
And the room smells like vanilla tobacco because that’s what we smoke
I don’t smoke
I’m just passing through it
And the girls are just so unbelievably beautiful and we all want to go to bed with them
I would if there was a place to take her
I would take her there
Oh boy would i ever
You say there is loneliness inside me that is better than the rain. That i am more than my charm and laughter
I’m the dark hollow of nothing too
Just like that
I un unfocus my eyes because i want to get to the bottom of things
Ana mendieta said above all a search for origin and i know
I’m not from here
I’m just passing through
But when the waves come they’ll take the exact form of a shambok
And then it’ll be just like that
The blood oranges
we eat them for their name
She reminds me of a vampire
She has no reflection, except in our eyes
And i don’t wonder if she loves me
You love me
Even though we’re just passing through
I need you to know that I’m paying attention like it’s going out of style
Because it’s 2023 and it is
When there’s a last time baby
You can’t help notice it in every time time too
And there’s nothing like the first time you see the place you come from
And it was there in you
Like a mirror or a red orange sky
I don’t know where Knysna is just that its’ capital is silent
in ways that matter
Knight
Knife
That’s right
Might be alive in dreams of the past like Mandela wanted
The cries of the fenced off population
Perineal polite hesitation
It’s 2023
Eina comes from the Khoi people ok
I’m trying something called preemptive suffering
It’s called preambled loneliness
Prepackaged pineapple and cuts on your mouth
Eina