by Abbey Khambule Before you left you asked me to move a small vine of bougainvillea inside until winter had passed. It’s now inscribed an arch over the window, creeping over the graffito “Ek Is As Gevolg Van Jou” sketched above it; drooling and draping over the old...
Fiction & CNF
Water
by Abbey Khambule The tide grows. A charm of firefinches flies over the promontory, breaks open and tumbles on the wind like roller pigeons; retreats inland, fleeing the ribboning tongue of the sun setting in the ocean. I imagine it to be of fledgling Cape...
Victoria Falls
by Confidence Seleme +++Hurry up Buti, make it quick. I don’t have all night!” +++He was her sixth and final client for the evening. After this, she would hurry to her flat to take a long shower and try to wash off all she had seen and done. Some people...
Weeds
by Mpumi Cilibe There were moments when I felt that she was far stricter and harsher with me than with the rest of my siblings. But I must admit that there were also times when I felt her tenderness seeping through the tough shell that encased the molten toffee...
His eyes were blue
by Abigail George “God took you out of my life for a reason.” Arms as pale as milk, black eyes, little foal, innocent and tender as Zelda Fitzgerald, genius wonder boy of the family – in this dark house we celebrated his birth in the same way my mother...
Black Boy Fly
by Thabiso Tshowa Black Boy Fly is a story or maybe it’s a game about the human race about how we can be loving and hurtful at the same time but if you play your cards right you can actually act a poes and still get the girl of your dreams. But it goes deeper...
Czardas
by Noel King Dust dances in the light above my son’s violin. I am recalling the days I never heard him practise. Being a CEO, I was busy, away a lot, when I was at home it was down-time for all three of us. His mother heard him practise. I wish she was here...
A Day In August
by Palesa Mazamisa The phone rang. Mpumi watched the numbers flash on the screen, urging her to pick up. She didn’t recognise the number, so she continued watching how with each ring the vibration inched the shuddering phone along the tiles. She let it flash...
The Brink of Bursting: Confessions of a Balloon Fetishist
by Ray Gary The very particular beauty of a balloon is inseparable from its fragility. For a number of people, most of whom choose to remain anonymous, this beauty extends beyond reminisces of childhood. A Google search of ‘balloon fetish’ reveals the...
Sex is the Opium of The People
by uMonde iNxele The point is the longer you go, the deeper you see into your own sexuality. It is like coming face to face with your shame of sex. Everyone has something to be ashamed of, and most of the time it has something to do with sex. That says...