Funny what one remembers when you wake up before dawn…. this poem from my book SOUND BEFORE WATER (University of Sto.Tomas Publishing House, Manila 2013; Minimal Press, Cape Town 2025) —

along with a lot of random things like Norman’s newspapers stuffed in his jacket to keep himself warm in winter in Cape Town – that was around 1995 or so… when I was working in a secondhand music shop in a rundown area.. we were buying and selling music cds, vinyl, etc… I was the manager… we bought from suspicious characters with tattoos sometimes, and also rich folks who had massive collections… it was dirty work in many ways… but Norman suddenly came to mind while I was unable to get back to sleep… he didn’t smell nice but he bought lots of stuff from me.. he had money somehow… then there was Clive who tried to protect my wife who was also working there — some gangster types scared my wife… Clive was a regular drunk and homeless guy who hung around the shop sometimes — completely harmless, but he protected my wife when she was on her own and Clive saw a way to divert the attention of the gangsters away from her … my wife and I bought shopping vouchers for Clive when Christmas came around – it was for chicken — not for alcohol… so he bought so much chicken and shared it around he said they had chicken coming out of their ears… Norman’s Newspapers and Clive’s Chickens… one day I have to write properly about them and all those amazing random memories before my brain switches itself off completely.