Alive At This Time [REV]

Marching full speed to where I’ll be picked up
after work, caught in a charging-figures melée:
taxis who loiter at green lights then drive off as
soon as the robot turns red - bearing down on
me who’d set off at the right time with nervous
distress growing worse dodging stalls taking up
three-quarters of the pavement & pedestrians
shuffling single-file past shop-entrances with

Bus passengers alighting & blocking the way;
I lose all ease of mind ’til deciding to try walking
down another street & lo, a nice place - shady
trees, wide sidewalks & taxi’s restfully parked
at standstill - I pass without having to charge
past loiterers blocking space; I’m happy now
in the new building as my road home’s good
for my soul; thank heaven, at least I can walk

In peace now thinking thoughts of joy instead
of lamenting at being alive at this time…

[Tuesday 24 October 2017]

Half a Brain [REV]

There was a young man, gifted beyond measure,
learning ability far beyond the norm; his paintings
and creative writings were exceptional but he was
plagued by anxiety of perfectionist tendencies - &
four successful medical practitioner brothers - he
felt dissatisfied with just being whom he was

Instead of realising an inner artist he also wanted
to make academic study his field - but the stress
proved too much for his aesthetic soul and he fell
ill; diagnosis schizophrenia, so he could only hold
down non-stressful administrative jobs which then
frustrated his creative mind - and much worse:

Since he heard voices he was given the dreaded
deadly psychiatric drugs that quieted the voices
by silencing parts of his brain until he was locked
up in an institution to wither away quietly; not a
burden to anybody, guinea pig of pseudoscientific
practitioners of dangerous psychiatry until he died

A vegetable in the end - dear reader, take heed,
don’t live with too much stress - relax - enjoy life -
don’t strive for perfection as it will drive you mad,
put an early end to your life - just be content with
who you are - don’t measure or compare yourself
with others of your kind: you are unique

Trying to be somebody else will surely stop you
from being you without ever changing you into a
successful person of another kind, you will end
up with half a brain and organ failure thanks to
the wonders of murderous Western medicine….

Long-Lost Reality [Revised]

High in a tower, elevated in the hot African sun, two
little translators have had enough as the scourge of
self-assessment lurks right after th’ Government had
curbed requisite service to keep State Departments
globally communicative - reviewing dribs and drabs
of the little documents they had th’ exquisite privilege
to translate while lost in an ocean of towering, blind

Buildings in Pretoria - an anachronism in a blinding
African sun; reality’s shaking & the earth heaving as
political masters fell remaining vestiges of efficiency
and appoint the unworthy to force nuclear disaster on
South Africa; the market is disgorging pension funds -
plummeting to new depths and blindly, against all the
odds, two little translators struggle valiantly against

Life itself to get their job done, and to keep the Foreign
Languages Section afloat as African masters conclude
the world is irrelevant - only depleting life force of the
society in which ANC is wielding its destructive political
clout is worth considering, the rest is dross and South
Africa will be destroyed - oh, how can this be? Ah, but
we used to pray to a God within religious structures

Whose strictures proved to be false as it was founded
on slavery and eternal exploitation of our people, based
on prejudice and race - so there you have it, nothing’s
changed, valiantly we struggle to achieve nothing within
the tattered fabric of an ill-defined, long-lost reality…
[Wednesday 18 October 2017 - This forms part of a diary
which chronicles the story of my life.]

A Blackguard At Heart [Rev]

Finally found where I am at home: - among the
recreational drug users who use any and every
drug they discover to get high - knowing they’re
growing immune to dose and that prescription
for continuous use is the greatest fraud there is

Laughing at medical establishment Pharisees -
tough people who don’t give a damn for anyone’s
opinion and never try to impress, who don’t play
the game of snobbery & never wear a mask; with
these self-assured people I am myself and admit

I like red-necks, the salt of the earth, feeling bored
and out of place amongst the refined who quietly
sob while refusing to vent their anger on criminal
doctors who destroy the health of people who ask
for their help – give me an honest person who has

NO reverence for pretenders trying to be better than
we are; I’m a blackguard at heart & feel safe amongst
cynics who don’t trust anyone: everything on earth is
done for selfish reasons where religion is the highest
player in the stakes of robbing the disadvantaged in

order to enrich the already wealthy. Self-confidence
surges within me as I contemplate hypocrisy of the
self-congratulating society where ‘unselfish’ means
the selfish overpowering the innocent...