Thrifty Word Challenge 100 #74: Uncomfortable — Unless I was acting on stage Being somebody else, not myself Or giving a speech at a conference Where my status as manager Gave me the power Never drop me in a public space Where my heart would race A sea of faces ready to determine If my songs were…

Solving the puzzle of my true nature — Equal opposite sides. Who decides What angle to pursue? Diagrams of neural pathways, Complexity, Perplexity. A mass of tangled quadrangles Overlap. Where is the gap? Can I escape These geometric patterns? Concentric circles, Looping thoughts, Block the pipeline Leading to my soul’s ardent engagement. Should a quadrilateral demarcation – Finite lines…

My visit to a new stylist led to the worst out-comb ever — A while ago, I mentioned my excitement at the prospect of attending a different salon to tidy my tresses. I’d been growing my hair for almost a year and wasn’t happy with the outcome two months ago at my previous hairdresser. …

Thrifty Word Challenge 100 #73: Enough — I’m tired of hypocrisy, platitudes, lies, promises, vanity projects, corruption, obfuscation, insensitivity, inefficiency, xenophobia, commissions, agencies, meetings, sub-committees, unaccountability, disorganization, factions, distractions, cadre deployment. Stalingrad tactics, decaying infrastructure, qualified municipal audits, self-enrichment, load shedding, poverty, activist and whistle blower assassinations, potholed roads, water and sewage crises, drought, floods, national development…

Divine Breath — Beyond thought In the space between nowhere Ether stirs. Absent of light I seek an opening In this realm of nothingness. No tactile sense Nor eye, no tongue To titillate or shape the words. Furrowed brow smooths Body floats upon a pool of consciousness Waves of light ripple in the…

GiaB writing prompt #2–21 Happy Place — Early childhood is beyond my camera’s reach — I see only a fuzzy image of fear. Other actors in the family drama are gone — mother, father, brother. The river of the past didn’t flow into a bitter salt lake as expected. I grew wiser and the sweet waters of…

How do you save refugees from people smugglers by sending them to Rwanda? — Watching the news on Tuesday night, 14 June, was a lesson in stupidity. The migrants marked for deportation had dropped from 130 the previous week to 31 on Friday, 10 June, and by 14 June only seven passengers. …

Life is unpredictable, but Medium readers’ loyalty should be forever — I was heartbroken when Medium did a spirited cleansing of our followers last year and threw out all the bad apples. Were they really rotten to the core, or was it a call to engage more? On second thoughts, that culling dented my ego. But it must have broken my…

Thrifty Words 100 #72: Fear — What’s your greatest fear? I’m afraid I can’t answer that. Why? Because you’re scaring me. Am I too intimidating? You’re damn right! The secret to facing your fear is to take the first step. I did that once and tripped and sprained my ankle. Aha! Let’s go deeper. Walking frightens…