TEBOHO PIETERSEN

  We were going to a place where everyone is dying   They lay in their beds  The rooms were small and dark  They didn’t have much connection with the outside  We were told they were infected with a serious disease  Soon they would be skin and bones  We went there a group of us  To document the small town of the dying  Knocking on various doors  Expecting to be invited in  Soon realising the dying don’t easily accept strangers  We kept going trying not to let the weight of the reality set in  Trying not to let the logic of our immaturity seep in  We were doing something worthwhile or we were building our own profiles  While all these people were starving  I had to perform to camera, introduce the topic  Explain why we didn’t get to see any of the residents  Didn’t get to show the weak desperate bodies facing their eminent end  What did I say? what would you say?  Why does that matter? why ...

You keep us awake with your schedules and deadlines  Agendas, payslips, boardrooms  You keep us awake with your banking systems  You do keep us awake with your machines making noise on the pavements  Taxis, cars, hooting, pushing, shoving each other out the way  You keep us awake with your ambition  Competitive, sizing each other before pushing someone off the rails  You do keep us awake with your greed With your expectations  With your suffering    You do keep us awake with your screeching  Preaching, keeping us all in prison  You do keep us awake with your passion  Inability to learn a lesson  Scratching, digging, mining  Spending all your time underground  You do keep us awake with your bibles  Your old stories written afresh but keeping the same message  You do keep us awake with your dying, your funerals  Motorcades and sirens heading to the graveyard  You do keep us awake with your ...

I wish I’d helped you understand  something  about death before it is too late   I wish we had sat  I wish we had ate  I wish we had shared  A significant moment that helped us emerge  Like a butterfly from a cocoon  I wish we had been more serious  I wish we had said what we needed to say  I wish we had known how little of time we had  I wish we had sat in silence  I wish we had broken through  Found solace in the quite  I wish we had known  How soon this life would be over  But of-course we did  We still took it as though  We had a long time to go  I wish we had spoken  I wish we had Ignored our phones  Seen each moment as a token  We were undone by the banks  They wanted us to take out loans  Pay off the interest  Forced us to labour  Managers, executives, head of this head of that  Buildings construction law admin  This was our lives  I wis...

  For now they want to have drinks with you  Yes for now  They want to rub shoulders with you  For now  They want to make friends with you  Go out dancing  Share a conversation with you  Yes for now  They do  Want to have late night chats with you  Brainstorm with you  Sing karaoke and dance with you  For now  They want to come home with you  Ride in your car  Make jokes with you  Grin and laugh be academic with you  they have all the time for you  Blush and make promises with you  For now yes they do  For now  So keep your wits with you  Remain vigilant and sceptical,  in time you lose  If you built up an ego it will come crashing down and boom  Rubbing salt in the wound  Pushing you off a cliff Boasting friend, wolf in sheep skin, taking you down for good  You can help them get their fame, help them get their game, but in time they move  Glor...

I have been meaning to meditate but I havn’t given myself half a chance  There’s been too much noise There’s been family, friends, parents Birthdays, Christmas  There’s been all that and some  There’s been neighbors, favours, takers, deceivers gaining ground  Banks, lenders, facilitators, stock brokers  Fried chips coffee and steak There’s been talkers, shouters  Why must they make so much noise?  Why must they tell me their stories?  I don’t want to hear it! Make ups, break ups, if I need that I’ll just watch content  Spinners, groovists, storytellers who need a platform  Not for my ears, I don’t have enough storage space to store it  You are bothering the wrong person, go and find a relative with the same problems Princesses, frogs, dragons, all that stuff I already heard when I was seven Jolla, dating, marriage all that stuff has been happening for a thousand years  I been meaning to meditate  But I live in the city...

I’m getting these one liners, without the link I’m lost  If you start something you must finish it  The link is death and ofcourse it doesn’t make sense, it was never meant to  Rely on knowledge and experience  All I know is I’m a system not even a part of a system  I do my part to maintain, not escape but refrain  From anything unknown or new  You call this life  I call it something else, not death Icall it nothing else  Please don’t involve me in your version of freedom  Teachers, preachers, Lords, Mistresses  Authoritarians  The way they say it makes it sound legit  But what they are saying has little merit  But you will never know that  You will never see that  You’ve got shares in their business  You’ve got vested interest  Always looking for meaning  Afraid to step into the unknown  Intelligent fools  The banks, the facilitators, the family man who wants to go home for Christma...