It will cost us standing in the water
Video and Poem Installation 2022
Proteas don’t fear fire
dead fish still blink here
and I drink Buchu on an empty stomach
She told me the smaller shark seemed harmless
but it grinned at her and told her she won’t make it out alive
it grinned though and since proteas don’t fear fire she will continue to blink
We play hide and seek in the twilight
but the wooden doors have moving faces
and as you run through freshly cut grass
the shadows briefly stroke thin long arms down your sides
proteas don’t fear fire though
I think of all the types of proteas
and how they seem to sleep when planted by human hands
He said in order for a spring to live it must have an uitloop, anders loop dit weg
we dug that day and we stood knee-deep
I don’t know about springs, but I know about echoes
I know about voices and I know about warnings
He said the trees in the garden have gone deaf,
but we can prune them
I wonder why someone can be gone, but also not gone-gone
and stare at the living wearing flower patterned dresses with frayed white collars
I tried to see but I must be a bird,
because my eyes fly over fences and wires and signs,
that say that they shoot on sight and ‘oortreders sal vervolg word
I must be a bird
She said hie-jy jou moerskont kom huis toe!
She said there is dirt and then there is real dirt
She said sing and he said sing and they said sing
they all said sing-sing
I said my heels are red, because one day a man got off a boat
walked through a field and slapped his hand on the arch of a pondok
I forgot about the proteas but they must still burn and the fires are still coming
ARA ARA