Coba (Naja nivea)

Harry Owen

Halfway along a rutted dirt track, down

to where waters meet, salt to fresh, the car

bumping and rattling slowly through dry heat

and sand, we jerk to a sudden shocked halt.

No zebra, this, but a huge snake crossing,

dust-ochre and deliberate: Cobra!

Not especially hurried, no interest

in me, he goes about his fixed business

of searching for a mate: it’s breeding time

and thicket is doubtless where he’ll find her.

No hint of threat perceived or offered,

no hood or cape, no venom load, no death,

this is exactly where he’s meant to be,

at home. It’s we who trespass, intrude,

we who meddle, yet he leaves us untouched.

Whether from respect or fear, I cannot move…

then breathe once more, relieved, quaking, creep on

in first gear, dust stirring. But wait – brake, brake!

Ten metres farther – fifteen? – she too glides

but from the other side across the path,

equally unperturbed (at least by me),

so sure of her beauty, leading him on.

Is she smiling? I could think so. Does she

watch him brave the dance floor, does she flirt?

Of course she does, as he, hapless devotee,

trails in her wake, bemused, befuddled, in thrall

to the same erotic music that I –

decades past – heard and hummed beneath the trees.

Midway along this rutted dirt road, down

to where the waters meet, all our knowledge

becomes serpent.

Featured on 25 February 2021

Amanzimtoti

Sihle Ntuli

shoes let sand in

bare soles leave footprints

waves washing up on shore

waves run up beside you

soul striding towards peace

the versatility of water

the stillness of tensions

of the waves that will not be held down

Featured on 1 April 2021

Occupation

Paul Mason

Spend years learning how to become something:

then become it:

that’s it then:

dentist: lawyer: optometrist:

atrophy and putrefaction:

certificates on the desk and walls of the office:

reasons and motives frozen:

c–u–t:

to fit the [frames]:

that’s employment: the ossifying of intentions:

shaping the means to fit the ends:

then the mould sets and the means cease to matter:

the ritual and the repetition:

actions formulated: motives, means and ends encapsulated:

concentrated in the necessary relations:

patients and clients:

the instruments become the life:

the life becomes the instruments:

drill bits and polishers:

contracts and statutes:

optics and eye charts:

there’s the pattern: and so it goes:

gum disease and tooth decay:

libel and delictual damages:

spectacles and contact lenses:

templates for life against Life:

occupation itself:

that’s the occupational hazard.

Featured on 8 April 2021