PIETER MADIBUSENG ODENDAAL

dave?ja?
shall I take it?  ja
okay

we take to keep but what remains is decay
I move on, but I don't know where I'll go
the water washes us away
on waves of sound and captured light
when strips get wet, they burst to life
wolfing down the spoils of spools

what is worth preserving, dave
of all these countless grooves and pics?
acetobacter's the showstopper anyway

digging through the gelatin
of our brittle memories
trailing blue wayward maps
a beautiful amnesia
wake up and smell the vinegar
the breakdown's here to stay

we were so young then and we were so old
zakhala izinsimbi but this is not a tearful wake
zikhala kamnandithe bells are ringing out
to celebrate this lethal jam
twisting distortion in our favour
I dreamed I was back in the street that I lived in
not so long ago
my curled-up childhood
and in my dream the street was lined with
the people I used to know

and why do we insist on melancholy
knowing full well how it's all destined to end?

in a pool of bacteria
defaced images and sticky ribbons
all remembering is hydrolysis
all forgetting merely bleed-through

but perhaps the act of threading together
of building sandcastles despite the tide
is reason enough to keep on recording
to cling to ourselves crumbling in our hands

one last time for all the sinking musicians
the waterworkers in cahoots with entropy!

this is the beginning of the end
and if you are tired or after satisfaction
hayi, after every… julle weet mos
have yourself a Louis Luyt ! hahaha!
full stop.