Do Not Fall in Love With People Like Me - Justin van Vuuren

 1.

Do NOT fall in love with people like me. I will take you to museums and parks and monuments and kiss you in every beautiful place, so that you can never go back to them without tasting me like blood in your mouth. I will destroy you in the most beautiful way possible, and when I leave you will finally understand why STORMS are named after people.

-          Spicy Icy

 

 

 2.

There are many types of monsters in this world, monsters who do not show themselves and cause trouble… monsters who abduct children. Monsters who devour dreams, monsters who suck blood and monsters who always tell lies. Lying monsters are a real nuisance… they are much more cunning than other monsters. They pose as humans even though they have no understanding of the human heart. They eat even though they’ve never experienced hunger. They study even though they have no interest in academics. They seek friendship even though they do not know how to love. If I were to ever encounter such a monster, I would likely be eaten by them, because in truth I am that monster.

-          Spicy Icy

 

 3.

The very thing that distinguishes us both is that I wouldn’t hesitate to choose you in every lifetime. But you wouldn’t choose me in this one and although I gave you my flesh and bones. I know I cannot love you into loving me, so there you are overflowing with my love and here I am pleading foe a droplet of yours or whatever I could salvage but there must come a time where you recognize to grieve someone hurts a lot less than forcing them to be a part of you. And I know I should not beg for love but just once I wanted someone to be afraid of losing me.

-          Spicy Icy

Justin van Vuuren

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Grade 12

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Oh what were the joys back then? by Nkazimulo Mvemve

Oh what were the joys back then?

In the simplest way we’d tend to each-others wounds, licking the blood saltier than sea and heal the ends.

It was never difficult when…

That was the trend, although too natural we lent our time to lie on each-others side, by side, by side – like a cube stationary in space and time, Schrödinger’s Cat vol-you-tile.

It was all too different when you meant…

The bending backwards that made my spine auto-correct, the alignment of my shock-ras, when the world was not content with covering our faces.

It put me in dark places.

The spaces that wore a nice black-on-white styled piece - that was the time I understood fashion emotionally - we did an experiment I wore white latex gloves.

I never experienced that excitement.

But it was always vibes when we’d shoot the shots and chat the times, laugh and giggle, sober and high, melancholy and delighted whenever we’d eye-to-eye.

A moth flew in my tea.

The dust it dissipated reminded me of a cold winters night outside those doors, we’d talk and come to light, it felt so right so nice, those stars the crowd  to our comedy.

I remember one about a girl.

And this wasn’t you it was him, that locational coincidence coincided our lives, he knew my name before he met me so fate was destined in that timeline.

 We were all there, back then.

I had dreams after I left of others that weren’t the same or you or them, one of them of my ‘ex’ I hated her guts in there, I’ve never seen you in stages of sleep.

But the memories I hold dear to me.

Although my mind is a clouded and forgetful shade of grey, memories of then piercing reminiscent light that take me back.

To my favourite place, to those always cold days, to those relationships that could have worked, to those emotional explorations, to that last light, last laughs and to that last hug I’ll never forget.

Nkazimulo Mvemve

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Matriculant 2019

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Heidegger's Being by Naadir Vorajee

Two great creatures deep within

fighting endlessly without sin

to win the war that plagues my mind

to take control of the fate I’ll find

one is a lion, of Nemian sort

that lures all notions of man and thought

He consumes and digests the Socratic soul

and reveals to Himself the ideas stole

He’s a beast that knows the light at the end

but knows not how or where it does bend

to find its source is his ultimate quest

until then his war will not rest...

The other a beast of gentle might

that sores on Plato’s platonic height

A gleaming soul that wishes to learn

the wings that flew the Arctic Turn

A beast that stares into the stars

and wonders why the night has scars

and feels to learn and learns to feel

of all the beauty the world hath wield

He cannot consume what lies beyond

but wants to envelope what is among

to learn through feel and touch and taste

instead of harsh consumption haste.

And so the carnage must continue

to find the truth that lines my sinew

so that I may become the man I must be

when no beasts fight deep within me.

Naadir Vorajee

***

Matriculant - 2013 

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Your Love is Transactional ~ TK Lushaba

 I can't really say I’m surprised

Or even that I’m disappointed.

But,

The love I was offered before we started 

Had me feeling like I was appointed

Had me feeling like I was chosen 

Had me feeling like I was important 

Like I mattered, you know?

I bought into your promise, 

Bought into your proposition,

Thinking it was a proposal.

Your silver tongue made it difficult 

To see that all I was being offered was Fool's Gold.

I was just another asset,

Just a product for you to "invest in", 

Another prospect for you to exploit.

My value to you was held only

In what you could gain from loving me.

The love I was delivered was different.

It had no warmth, no humanity.

It was inorganic, unnatural, used 

Like Currency.

Purely transactional.

Acquiring your love required labour, 

But that labour was never fully compensated.

© Thokoza B. Lushaba

Matriculant 2020

Fire Flower ~ Keara Singh

 The world is cruel to us flowers of fire.

They pick at the gardens of the frostbitten land in search of us,

to find us, hold us, steal our flames.

They use our warmth and leave us drained

petal after petal after petal...

We insist we have enough embers to sacrifice 

seeing us withering they still greedily take as we begin to freeze.

                We fall from our phoenix grace

                   Plummeting towards what we promised to never become

Reborn from pain.

     we change.

The twinkle and wonder in our once stardust ridden orbs 

dulled by glacial walls

We cage our wild hearts under bitter bars built of icicles 

to protect us from ever being punished again.

the ice becomes our new home.

Winter flowers,

I now understand why you are so cold

© Keara Singh

Matriculant 2020