“Let’s talk as painters,” he clasps my hand in a warm, knotted ham and we circle the room. He is hilarious, warm and furiously alive. Pausing at each picture; he animates — gestures uncommon of a man his age, swear words and spittle pass messages from fierce and funny blue eyes. An imperial under bite…
Summer crashes over us. Reassuring odours of hobo remind me that decay is life just above room temperature. Now, we are all funky. Humidity holds air in bunched fists, in the shade, waiting to be drunk. The car guard has lost an eye and fingers in some great unfairness. I’m outside the Sexpo, marvelling at…
I’m at the tattoo parlour, mulling over why the baby didn’t make it. It crosses my mind, all things considered, that it’s because there is a God, and not because there isn’t one. The man finishing off is large and parades his tribal lines as if they’re his. Paris Hilton has adopted 20 rabbits. They…
I’m between home and show and booked in for the night, but adrenalin has bled out, and the minutes feel skinned alive. Moments hang together, nerves exposed. I’ve chickened out and beat the last joke to the car. Drunk executives and their punch bags heave under the weight of free buffet. Young do-goods shake jowls…
I sense the coming day’s density around midnight, and try to pull out. A late text that my work is overwhelming — I must stay in cyberspace tomorrow, wrestling invisible work giants. I am drawn to and repelled by the meeting, menisci kissing before finally parting. Steve shoots back. He does not accept this reasoning….
Sticky, bilious, yellow-green shame gushes from a hole in the ocean a mile down. Oh, Lord, don’t put it on the television. Better that we cannot see it. Our eyes decide what our outrage is based on, not the truth. We’ve made our systems more efficient — less effort, better feelings — we’ve “new and…
The receptionist looks me up and down. I see her nose tilt up slightly. She’s taking an inventory: tattoos, asymmetrical haircut, body jewellery … she sits back, confident that her sums round off. I see the smug recession of her chins into a generous neck. She will come down from the mountain. “Can I help…
Why doesn’t God pay tax? I’m not suggesting that God actually does the transfer. He has elected representatives among us, apparently — and authorised them, allegedly, to collect funds on his behalf. Some of them have outfits and everything. The ruling that God’s money is safe from SARS can only ensure that shysters and thieves…
I read another self-published novel the other day … the author told me it’s really hard getting published. I read his book. There are reasons they don’t publish everyone’s book. Writing is hard. Writing well is almost impossible. After putting his book down, hard, I wept to know that there are now suicide writers as…
It’s early and the sky is downcast, reflecting the early morning kinks that leak from the displaced and sleep-deficient. Irritable at the early instant coffee, just enough to block a nap as we taxi, not enough to keep the words of the book before me in order — we nod and mumble, not looking. The…
