life

rippling thunder
shreds the sky
lightning turns night into ghostly day
chasing silence away as crash upon crash
splits the silence
preparing us
warning us
as drop
after
drop
dropdrop
turns into dribbles
chased earthwards by screaming blue skies
harder harder
harderharderharder
its not enough
Gaia throws down hail to chase the rain
must get water to the ground to return to
the sky again…

exhausted now

ice covers the ground
Gaia melts into Gaia
as Gaia grumbles onward
away
looking for new targets
new places and faces to amaze
while they gaze at a primal force
puny humans
enjoy the gift of life…

Oh come on!

Girl, 2, with hand injury has legs amputated
Nov 29, 2009 8:19 PM | By Sapa

A two-year-old girl who was admitted to a Johannesburg hospital for burn marks on her hands landed up having both legs amputated, the Gauteng Department of Health and Social Development said.

“The toddler…was admitted at Far East Rand Hospital and later transferred to Charlotte Maxeke Academic hospital to be treated for burns on her hands. Instead she ended up with her legs being amputated, ” said departmental spokesman Mandla Sidu in a statement.

He said the Gauteng Health MEC has called a meeting for Monday with hospital personnel about the incident of negligence to which Thembisa Kometsi from Daveyton was victim.

“Those found to be guilty of negligence…disciplinary action will taken against them which may lead to dismissal”, said Mahlangu.

The rest of this drivel here.

I’m sorry, what? a) How does a surgeon amputate two legs? One is not enough, they have to go for two??

b) Dismissal? WTF? Criminal negligence? Jail time? Compensation? The spokesman saw fit not to mention this?

but wait, there’s more…

Kometsi, a dressmaker, believes the intravenous drips that staff at Far East Rand Hospital inserted into her daughter’s feet caused the gangrene that turned them into blackened stumps.

“I’m still busy with my lawyer,” Kometsi told the Saturday Star after the MEC’s visit. “I don’t trust what they (the government) are promising.”

Kometsi said the toddler burnt her hands on September 15 when she accidentally plunged them into boiling bathwater in the family’s shack. Her mother rushed her to the nearby Phillip Moyo Clinic, which transferred her to Far East Rand Hospital.

“There was no treatment. They just wrapped her burns and gave her Panados.”

Her daughter then developed diarrhoea and vomited. “They gave her a powder for it, but couldn’t explain what it was. She still had diarrhoea.”

On September 18, nurses inserted a drip into one of her feet and then another containing blood into her other foot. They also administered two drips containing fluid in her foot, which lasted three hours.

“My daughter was rolling around on the bed. She started getting pains. Her feet were swollen and started to turn purple. I was worried as she was in a bad condition.”

She later found out that her daughter had been transferred to Charlotte Maxeke on September 20.

“No one told me she had been moved. They cleaned her burn wounds, which were dirty. They said my child’s legs were damaged from gangrene. I asked how that happened. They said that because she had burns, some of her veins were blocked and blood was not flowing to her legs.

…

Its investigation showed that “the death of tissue in her legs was due to her blood being prone to clots as she had suffered burns and diarrhoea and was also short of oxygen due to pneumonia she was suffering at the time”.

But Kometsi doesn’t accept this: “They took me as if I know nothing. I know what happened to my child. I was there from beginning to end. I saw how they put the drips in.

“There was nothing wrong with her besides her burns. I won’t agree with them until they tell me my child was injured by their drips.”

this is horrifying

South African music…

South African music…

…is very, very healthy, I’m glad to say. Most readers should have heard of the famed Johnny Clegg and now his son Jesse is following in dad’s footsteps.

Then of course there is the Parlotones, Seether and for a bit of local bluegrass hoe-down and party sing-a-long, we have The Radio Kalahari Orkes (RKO). They are an experience not to be missed, and are guaranteed to rock your socks off. Even for those outside our borders, even if you don’t understand the words, you’ll get the rhythms.

One of the newer bands I’m absolutely loving are the black hotels, an indie outfit that are working the pubs and bars and have brought out their second cd already. Get it, you won’t be disappointed…

politicians…

Two crocodiles were sitting at the side of the swamp near the lake.

The smaller one turned to the bigger one and said, ‘I can’t understand how you can be so much bigger than me We’re the same age, we were the same size as kids. I just don’t get it.’

‘Well,’ said the big Croc, ‘what have you been eating?’
‘Politicians, same as you,’ replied the small Croc.
‘Hmm. Well, where do you catch them?’
‘Down the other side of the swamp near the parking lot by the Union Buildings.’

‘Same here. Hmm. How do you catch them?’

‘Well, I crawl up under one of their BMW cars and wait for one to unlock the car door. Then I jump out, grab them by the leg, and shake the shit out of them then eat ‘em!’

‘Ah!’ says the big Crocodile, ‘I think I see your problem. You’re not getting any real nourishment. See, by the time you finish shaking the shit out of a politician, there’s nothing left but an asshole and a briefcase.”

‘ullo

i know, my bad, i’ve been gone for a while
i was playing on another platform but while it was all in my head
i felt i didn’t have the freedom i have here
so i’m back
cap in hand
to walk again
hand in hand
the wordpress shuffle
i’ll be importing the stuff i wrote from the other blog over the next few weeks so stay in touch
theres lots to catch up on, especially the tub thumping page

space and time

daddy loved me so he said
but he never put me to bed
or read me a bedtime story
the distance between us
river deep and mountain high
a vague memory of him being there
but never there
if you know what i mean
but maybe i’m being mean
selective memory because of
the space between us now
between a man and the daughter
it’s easier to believe the possible bad
back then
to make the real hurt now
more understandble
explainable
justifiable
if he was distant then
then i can live
with the distance now
whether i want to
or not

can you see my light

how deep are my eyes
when i look in the mirror
reflections of reflections
reflecting back at reflections
reflecting…
nothing but reflections
lost
in finity
pitiful creatures scurry faster than light from
light probing places
where there should be
no light…
misted memories twist in the dark
wanting more
feeding and stealing light
need all my might
to clear the weeds from beautiful things
refracted dreams lost in
reflected things
not dead
just lost
waiting
for a line of light
how deep are my eyes
when you look in my mirror

sometimes

when i get so lonely my heart could leak
i imagine if mom was still around
would she be proud
would she say out loud
im proud of my daughter
would she guide me and hold me
as i battle monsters in my head
of self-doubt and guilt and fear and…
failure…
is not allowed
my blood won’t let me
600 years of tradition
keep me on a mission to succeed
weed out the weak and the meek
and to take what i want
to sup from the fountain of power
except
its only what im supposed to do
no more war but now the corporate ladder
makes those still in my life gladder except
i dont want to anymore, this fight
to be free to be me
has drained me emptied me
as if i were a milking cow for the lestat family
but of course thats ridiculous
hahahaha
we all know one is not supposed to live
ones life for another
but still a little part in me
hidden from the twisted light
that probes the cracks in my smile
i imagine if mom was still around
would she be proud
would she say out loud
im proud of my daughter
would she guide me and hold me
as i battle these monsters in my head
of self-doubt and guilt and fear and…
failure…

theres a hole in my head

theres a hole in my head, don’t worry
im not thinking of being dead instead its
caused by words tumbling around and bashing up against the inside of my skull
most people think our brains are solid but thats only
the third dimensional physical anatomical presentation of the
conglomeration of words jammed solid
when they have nowhere to go…
i have a hole in my head and
words are leaking out, laughing at me with
the ease of their escape
as they break free from boundaries
i know
they hate to be stacked and stored in flawless order
rhythm and pace are the way forward
because without words all we have is gibberish
the idea of it leaves me feverish and if all i can manage
at the end of this day
is this garbled piece of white noise
floating around in my head
then perhaps
i wont lose too many words
because of the hole in my head…

i know my friend is dead

i know my friend is dead
it was a dark and starless night
in my dream
hope was plain out of light
beyond the mountain
a faint glow lined the ridge
i was outside this dank and chilly night
i’d heard the bark and howl
of an old and faithful friend
i threw back my head and yowled
zak! owoooooo
zak!owoooooo
but it was pointless
a dead end
then a six horse carriage thundered by
quick as lightning I jumped up high
chased those horses
until sparks from their hooves flew by
they ran over the mountain
i knew i was going to see zak again
as i passed over the ridge
i saw the light was a lie
and zak had already left
i’ll never see my boy again

04:27am/ i just called the current handler of my ex police dog zak, he just passed away peacefully in his sleep tonite. happy hunting old friend, you saved my life more times than i care to remember and showered yourself in glory.