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  • Im No Lady (Im All Woman)

    Im no lady
    Im all woman
    Gaye Davis jests
    on SAFMs The Editors
    (all women on the show)

    Im no lady
    Im all woman
    responding to the
    3 ladies on the show
    (a man-made observation)

    (He does the mumbo-jumbo
    by saying he is blessed
    having these women
    on his morning show)

    Im no lady
    Im all woman
    if you can tell
    the big difference
    (sans any gender testing)

    Im no lady
    Im all woman
    as we go along
    into the 16 days ritual
    of anti-abuse activism

    Im no lady
    Im all woman

    For how long
    this wisecrack
    in womens name

    With the ritual of 16 days of activism against violence against women and children upon us, SAFMs The Editors guy-fellow Elvis Preslen shoots himself good-naturedly, Sunday morning, November 1 2009, as he has done throughout August Womens Month, in his many manly attempts to contribute to gender parity; this Sunday claiming to be blessed by having 3 ladies on his programme Gaye Davis, Kim Cloete and Ferial Haffajee.

    David Kapp, david_kapp@yahoo.com

  • Running Away (Down Vilakazi Street)

    Running away
    down Vilakazi Street
    on morning television
    a Sunday morning
    African-time start

    Running away
    down Vilakazi Street
    no crime committed
    no child abused so far
    as we all can see

    Running away
    down Vilakazi Street
    green scenery all round
    streets squeaky-clean just
    for this particular occasion

    Running away
    down Vilakazi Street
    and other landmarks
    (like M. Isaacson High)
    post-apartheid June 1976

    Running away
    down Vilakazi Street
    all shades of clothing
    shapes and sizes too
    (even foreign humankind)

    A new world order
    running away in Soweto
    post-Afrikaans protests
    normal sport taking place
    in our almost-normal society





    Amusing myself at the goings-on throughthe picture-perfect greenery of the Soweto Marathon, Sunday morning,1 November 2009.

    David Kapp, david_kapp@yahoo.com

  • Our Misspent Youth

    Our misspent youth
    as legend has it
    wild oats sowed
    (liberation before)

    Our misspent youth
    obliged
    to listen
    when
    we speak

    We
    who might be
    the
    threat of a good example
    a
    gangster besuited
    like
    a politrickian or is it
    the
    other way round

    Our misspent youth
    the now-defunct Youth Commission
    to the tune of R4.2 million
    says the Auditor-Generals report

    A newspaper article
    right next door to a picture
    of Aleida Guevara March
    daughter of Che

    Our misspent youth
    alongside Che lives on
    what a negation
    of what he stood for

    Our misspent youth
    parents
    shape (their) children
    in
    their own image
    keeping
    them on their own
    straight
    and narrow

    Wild oats sowed
    alongside obscene poverty
    our
    own Wa-Benzi flourishes
    while Che lives on

    What did we reap

    Youth misspent R4.2m
    A-G audit (Cape Argus, October 12 2009), sharing page-space with Ches daughter Aleida Guevara March, here with Camilo Guevara March as guests of FOCUS-SA  the Friends of Cuba Society.

    - David Kapp, david_kapp@yahoo.com

  • Send Me (To Work)

    Send me
    to work
    where there is
    a lack of
    staff and resources

    Such is a suggestion
    from the Human Rights
    in African Prisons seminar
    (Jails dont heal, they harm)

    Send me
    to work
    computer literate
    (a piece of paper
    to prove it thus)

    Send me
    before I myself
    commit a petty offence
    and congest
    our overfull prisons

    Send me
    to work
    before I make
    a taxpayer or two
    pay my board and lodging

    Jody Kollapen calls for
    community deal for petty offenders at a recent Jails dont heal, they harm public seminar (Cape Argus, Friday October 9 2009).

    -    David Kapp, david_kapp@yahoo.com

  • Send Me (To Work)

    Send me
    to work
    where there is
    a lack of
    staff and resources

    Such is a suggestion
    from the Human Rights
    in African Prisons seminar
    (Jails dont heal, they harm)

    Send me
    to work
    computer literate
    (a piece of paper
    to prove it thus)

    Send me
    before I myself
    commit a petty offence
    and congest
    our overfull prisons

    Send me
    to work
    before I make
    a taxpayer or two
    pay my board and lodging

    Jody Kollapen calls for
    community deal for petty offenders at a recent Jails dont heal, they harm public seminar (Cape Argus, Friday October 9 2009).

    -    David Kapp, david_kapp@yahoo.com

  • Connectivity Is Everything

    Connectivity is everything
    the one that is world-wide
    the web of intrigue
    (weaved by those
    with stuff to hide)

    Connectivity is everything
    like the hired gun
    caught in between
    his own crossfire
    (and it is usually a he)

    Connectivity is everything
    some folk you know
    (nudge nudge wink wink)
    who can get things done
    because they know others

    Connectivity is everything
    as you can now see
    from whoever is on trial
    fingering everyone else
    (when thieves fall)

    Connectivity is everything
    only 3 in 10 people
    have a connection
    to a public sewerage system

    Connectivity is everything
    a child dies every twenty seconds
    from preventable diseases
    because of poor sanitation

    Connectivity is everything
    Are you connected

    Revisiting a United
    Nations 2015 millennium goal of improving sanitation, while SAFMs WeekendLive and The Editors presenter radios King of Malapropism Elvis Preslin struts his stuff, Sunday morning October 11 2009; giving me, one time more, cause to put fingers to keyboard. This mornings one was hand in cap.

    (Im not too sure that Ive spelt Elvis surname correctly, though I guess Ive got the Elvis part spot on!!).

    - David Kapp, david_kapp@yahoo.com
    Author(s): 
    David Kapp

  • Not That We Scoff

    Not that we scoff
    at the lesser spenders
    in the Cape Colony
    says a talking head

    Not that we scoff
    as the mugger city wins
    another tourism award

    (And we saw the launch
    of Human Trafficking
    Awareness Week and
    the month of Red October)

    Not that we scoff
    it all counts
    it all adds up
    for the local economy

    Not that we scoff
    at the informal end
    our second economy
    (each according to ability)

    Like Nomsa Mazwais lower
    storey of the 2-storey house
    in the trickle-down economy
    of very rich and very poor

    Not that we scoff

    Misusing the double storey analogy, courtesy of Nomsa Mazwais Ebony and Ivory from her Little Girl collection (University of Fort Hare Press, 2008), after a radio news report that the Colony of the Cape has won some preferred destination tourism award, the weekend of 4 October 2009.

    - David Kapp, david_kapp@yahoo.com

    Author(s): 
    David Kapp

  • It Sounds Like A Song

    It sounds like a song
    says the radio presenter
    on SAFM morning radio
    (Womens Month now done)

    It sounds like a song
    Athletics SA President
    talking himself out
    of the square circle
    he painted himself into

    It sounds like a song
    in defense of his lie
    no knowledge he says
    of any gender-testing

    It sounds like a song
    I did it for you
    I did it for my country
    (I also did it my way)

    It sounds like a song
    perhaps his swansong
    might he change his tune
    and do the honourable

    Or do we resign ourselves
    to our own fate
    SAFMs Sunday Weekend

    AMLive presenter this time does not shoot himself in the foot as he did throughout Womens Month! Sunday morning, 20 September 2009; the Caster Semenya gender-testing saga takes yet another turn, with calls for the sacking of ASAs Leonard Chuene, who admits to an error of judgement.

    - David Kapp, david_kapp@yahoo.com

  • Wonderful

    Wonderful
    waxes the male presenter
    of SAFMs The Editors
    an all-female panel he has
    (Womens Month now spent)

    Wonderful
    no longer the flavour
    of the month
    we are done with it
    our Womens Month

    Wonderful
    all ladies (exclaims he)
    not ladies of the night
    whatever that means
    to you out on the street

    Wonderful
    post- our Womens Month
    the morning after if you like
    after the fact its back
    to our old usual ways

    Wonderful
    he found 3 women
    all competent they are
    (not just tokenism it is)

    Wonderful
    times three
    The Grand Funk song Some

    Kind of Wonderful is in my head, as SAFMs Weekend AMLive presenter this times does not (entirely!) shoot himself in the foot as he did throughout August Womens Month with his Sunday morning The Editors programme, 20 Sept 2009.

    - David Kapp, david_kapp@yahoo.com
    Author(s): 
    David Kapp

  • I Dont Want to Think (Evil Thoughts)

    I dont want to think evil thoughts
    (I say to a Metro ticket examiner)
    of the next person who is human
    after all (and even humane)

    I dont want to think evil thoughts
    since I did my civic duty reporting
    my streets and others lights
    burning
    for over 3 weeks now daily and nightly

    I dont want to think evil thoughts
    of the besuited state employee
    driving a Delft Visible Policing car
    visibly not policing outside
    a place folk on occasion patronize

    I dont want to think evil thoughts
    notwithstanding the bureaucratic uphill
    that came my way when reporting
    these matters of state
    (what price a presidential hotline)

    I dont want to think evil thoughts
    when my monthly train ticket
    goes astray on my way back
    from wherever I was

    I dont want to think evil thoughts
    linking crime, poverty and unemployment
    like certain folk other than
    politicians
    tend to in the name of (market)
    research

    I dont want to think evil thoughts
    of scientists non-traditional and the
    like
    as they are human too after all
    and even humane some even more
    than the rest of us down south

    I dont want to think evil thoughts
    (carbon footprint or otherwise)

    Do you

    Trying to do my Sunday best for the
    progress of humanity, 13 September 2009, in spite of all things.

    - David Kapp, david_kapp@yahoo.com
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