Your bags packed, your heart pounding, you were leaving

Your new life just beginning never to return back again

The moment you went through that door I knew it was over

Your bags are back now, but you are not

So short lived, your new life over, before it began

The moment you went through that door I knew it was over

You are home now but you don’t want to be here

The love you had once lost never to fully regain

The moment you went through that door I knew it was over

Your leaving had broke my heart and made me change

If only you could return again and be my love again

The moment you went through that door I knew it was over

I try I try to make amends but cannot change a broken heart

So I keep on trying to make you see my caring love for you

The moment you went through that door I knew it was over

If life and love is beyond repair, does time make right

So moving on to start afresh would that ease your pain

The moment you went through that door I knew it was over

You broke my heart so I closed that door and sealed it shut

With a broken heart alone I stand with that handle in my hand

***

*Words by Harold Meyer

*Photograph by Meggin Murphy

Like a Phoenix

my flame is renewed

my wings are still new

and tight

I stretch them out

prepare myself to take off

on my new journey

BUT

I cannot, not yet

Like a giant enemy of freedom

life forces me to stay still

I cannot move

I am caged in

My wings are restrained

my flight delayed

What more must I endure?

How much longer can I

stay in this cage?

The fire is burning

The desire strong

I cannot break free

You cannot keep a Phoenix

down and caged

forever

NO

I shall rise from these ashes

I shall break the chains

I am strong

I have fire

I am the Phoenix.

***

*Words by Yolandi Du Plessis

*Photograph by Jonker Fourie

brandishing a cup of frank

coffee: bittersweet and black.

The magic beans bring me solace,

silencing the blankest pages

with ageless musical flavours.

Every song was written for me,

to the last apostrophe;

though every note was sang for you.

Every sip imagines a kiss,

all the more imagining you

with me when it’s you I miss.

***

*Words by Sean Nel

*Photograph by Catherine Scott

I dreamt of you again last night, the dream where you hold my hand. We sat together in what looked like a meadow. I tried to stay as long as she would let me but soon I was awake. I blocked out the light, shut my eyes tight so I could find you again. I stood in the distance watching you dance at the edge of my subconscious, you called to me. I reached for you but the farther I stretched the quicker you disappeared. Every time I see a picture of you, I feel a fresh stab of pain and the emptiness grows stronger. I am hollow Dearest, I am falling into the abyss and you are not there to catch me. I can barely breathe sometimes. I search for you in the faces of others, in every corner I hope to find you, with every car that hoots I hope against all hope that it is you waiting for me. Dearest please come back to me.
The dreams are getting shorter and fading almost instantly, like the pages of a worn out book every time I turn there is less to see and then eventually there’s nothing left.
Dearest come to me, wait for me on the edge. I am standing still with my eyes closed, come to me. I need you Dearest, please come back to me. My heart holds you in every beat and with each breath I crumble without you. In every tear drop there you are.
Dearest come back to me.

Yours Always,

***

*Words by Michelle Atagana

*Photograph by Meggin Murphy

Frozen memory

A passionate crime

Still lonely

Eyes portraying love

Incurable desire

No emotions above

Burning fire

A magical day

Fading dream

Driving me far away

Disappearing scene

I am not immune

Still hurts

I am blowing away

Sand from a dune

***

*Words by Toinette Rautenbach

*Photograph by Chantal Robbertse

Let me see what’s inside

Take a shot from the bottle

On a roller coaster ride.

Pass me the bottle

Let me see what’s inside

Another shot from the bottle

On that roller coaster ride.

Pass me the bottle

Let me see what’s inside

I think I’m looking for myself

For what I’ve been denied.

So I climbed on the bottle

On that roller coaster ride.

***

*Words by Shauna-Rae Rozentals

*Photograph by Axel Buhrmann

A stream called: Nothing

It christens me with delirious pleasure
The night’s velvet skin and stars
The dark twilight fading into a deep sense of mystery
And the cold winds blow…

We are trapped in this machine…                                                                                                                             and this machine is bleeding to death.
The ravens have passed to take what sorrows we spill
And the cold winds howl…

Drop ancient pride like a falling fever on glistening skin
As the hordes dance en masse like candle flames flickering
Bass beats pound to our human hearts

And cold winds descend…

Take heed for the last days are here and they will end
As time bleeds seconds and seconds die into hours
Eaten by the darkness of an uncertain path                                                                                          And the winds of mayhem rise up…

And I wake to live or to die
I shall carry all my love

And burn it in a western blaze

The ultimate shadow in the face of night and the darkness of day
Taking the mask given by stone sculptors
Douse the living fire that is passion… that is glamour
And swallow the pill called hypocrisy
Become a mindless maggot among the thriving throngs
Eating, shitting, living, saying, being nothing

That is what we are destined to be.

***

*Words by Douglas Simoes

*Photograph by Meggin Murphy

later…

a thousand sunsets passed-

How many

new mornings still to come

before the visible

becomes

invisible

to your eyes so

full of emptiness

loneliness…

***

*Words by Hermien Veldhuizen-Nysschen

*Photograph by Andy Kruger