This project has disaster, and time, and crisis,
and change at its core.
But sorry sir other things are not equal.
Have things changed?
"No! There has been no change. Things are exactly the same."
(You see though, 94 was meant to be the start of the future).
What about the rains?
"Oh yes, we never got floods like this – the rains are terrible these days."
But these days, the water has nowhere to flow but up.
The drains have abandonment issues.
Also, ‘disaster’ must come up to your knees. Ankle height doesn’t count.
I was not in South Africa when “Dayzero” took the world by storm,
Cape Town had no water to weep. Armageddon in the mother city.
Or so I thought. So I lead with that:
What about the drought?
mundane.
5l buckets of water were then filled from a truck, and not a tap, both 1km away.
So what?
If it’s yellow let it mellow
it’s always mellow when you’re sharing the Mshengu.
The bucket system also kept it real calm.
I texted Akhona to ask him questions about winter, if he uses a heater? wears jerseys? or makes soup?.
Maybe he thought I never learned warmth.
I also texted Nozuko.
I asked them both when I could come
For a visit, for a conversation, or an interview.
Unfortunately, they didn’t have time,
Let’s reschedule.
Akhona had been attacked, golf club to his femur.
Nozuko’s sister, a femicide stat.
No worries, really, it’s no catastrophe,
let me know when you’re available,
we’ll speak about the weather.
Take a measuring tape to disaster
in a place punctuated by crisis.
Baseline is the IPCC bogeyman.
She couldn’t remember when last there was a weather hazard. She wakes up early,
mops her tiles before breakfast, and goes to work.
Tiles because carpet rots three months of the year.
She doesn’t sell at the market if it’s too cold — she might get sick.
Instead, she stretches one meal into 3.
Relativise empty! No pills on an empty stomach.
Emergency is datum. So a world in which the weather doesn’t break your home again
must be just like sour grapes.
