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Zywa Apr 28
Those days! We stayed up

at night and went to the sea --


to see the sunrise!
Story "Titaantjes" ("Teen Titans", 1915, Nescio), chapter 1

Collection "Rasping ants"
Zywa Apr 26
Boys we were, nice boys,

gazing at the paving stones --


gazing at the stars.
Story "Titaantjes" ("Teen Titans", 1915, Nescio), chapter 1

Collection "Rasping ants"
Zywa Apr 26
We were Teen Titans,

the five of us, we were going --


to change everything.
Story "Titaantjes" ("Teen Titans", 1915, Nescio), chapter 1

Collection "Rasping ants"
Zywa Apr 13
I know I'm destined

for great deeds, however, first --


I've to finish school.
Novel "Midnight's Children" (1981, Salman Rushdie), chapter 2-8 "Alpha and Omega"

Collection "Low gear"
Zywa Dec 2023
A stone on a stone

on a stone, that's how I climb --


higher and higher.
Song "Bouwvakkerslied" ("Construction Workers Song"), a variation on the song "Deze vuist op deze vuist" ("This fist on this fist"), 1979, Willem Wilmink, for the TV-program "De film van Ome Willem" ["Uncle William's Film"] with Edwin Rutten

Collection "Stream"
Zywa Nov 2023
I know decency,

I know, later I too will --


behave properly.
Poem "Dame in progress" (2008, "Lady in progress", 2011, Ronelda Kamfer)

Collection "Stall"
Zywa Nov 2023
A photo, I'm six,

in the garden I bury --


a box with secrets.
Poem "dood in die familie" (2008, "death in the family", 2011, Ronelda Kamfer)

Collection "Glimpsed"
Zywa Oct 2023
I crawled, I stood up,


grandpa only nodded: yes --



that's how one grows up.
Novel "De eeuwige jachtvelden" (1995, "The happy hunting grounds", 1999 Nanne Tepper), letter from Victor to Lisa, aboot the Manager after his death (Third book, "Paris August 1990")

Collection "Within the walls"
Zywa Sep 2023
Child's play can smell of

tobacco smoke, camphor, cat --


and burnt porridge.
"Klein seuntjies wat gespeel het die heeldag aanmekaar, dié ruik so teen die middag na twak en kiesieblaar, na wilde-als en padda en aangebrande pap, harmansdrup en paregorie, katjiepoetjie en janlap." (Alba Brouwer)

- "Little boys who played together all day, smell like tobacco and malva at noon, like wormwood and frog and burnt porridge, Haarlem oil and paregoric, cat's paw and jalap."

Tale "A Change of tongue" (2003, Antjie Krog)

Collection "SoulSenseSun"
Zywa Apr 2023
It is attention

that licks children into shape --


It's love. Or hatred.
Novel "The time of the angels" (1966, Iris Murdoch), § 3

Collection "Unspoken"
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