sbya 2000 johannesburg
Seven haikus for an exhibition with no name
By Brenda Atkinson

1
We two on our knees
See: desire corrodes and yet
The candle is worth the flame

2
This I can't resist:
Lean in, smell. The seepage is blood.
Ironies evolve.

3
A strange recklessness:
My heart beats through ribs not mine -
Pump in a plastic cage

4
Peg into paper
Plastic maw jammed 'round the reel
Not half-clothed - naked

5
Perfect, how your smiles
Curve space to your design, the place:
Any darkened interior

6
Bastard - just a bit -
You, aesthete!
Through - and through.

7
Black as a battery
White as a screen - and then:
Somewhere in between


(with apologies to Colin Richards, Melanie Hillebrand, Juliette Leeb-du Toit, Andrew Verster, Dirk van den Berg and Sue Williamson, parts of whose essays on Alan Alborough's SBYA exhibition appear, at times perverted, in this text).