New writing
Fiction and prose by established and emerging authors. Send your poetry or fiction to New Writing at skryfwerk@litnet.co.za to be considered for publication on LitNet.
Please note that work previously published in print or on any online media platform will not be considered for selection.
The maze
2021-02-05"We are enveloped in a hollow sky.
Our search for truth unmasks the void
and its uncertain quantum probabilities"
Entanglement
2021-02-03"Sometimes in the middle of the night
I am awakened – desperate and confused.
Was it an echo of her voice I heard
or just someone shouting in the street?"
Portrait
2021-02-03"The lights go out – an electricity failure –
the canvas becomes a ghostly surface.
Lingering shapes suspended in the dark –
your portrait waiting to be drawn."
The Southern Cross
2021-02-03"The night is an ancient stellar theatre
where cosmic symphonies are heard.
It has an orchestra without a conductor
playing music in counterpoint"
Beginning, middle, end
2020-12-23"In Paris at midday on a day in May we emerged from the métro at the Place Maubert. In that tiny square the Huguenots were burned at the stake, I’d read, and I remarked to him that the screams must have been awful."
Him here, he’s my second husband
2020-12-18"A few years ago, I travelled to my hometown – by bus, because I couldn’t muster enough courage to take my car to travel all those many kilometres on my own."
camino journey
2020-12-17"this perhaps a glorious destiny
scattered stardust in an infinite Salty Sea"
LAW FOR ALL's Top 10: "Green" by Naomi Meyer
2020-12-15"I don’t see a hopeful future. I see the back of my little girl’s head the last time I was here. The red rash on her neck."
Bitter tea
2020-12-09"The name Pretorius sent a shock of frigidity into Nella’s heart. She shuddered. She thought of her blonde husband and what she had heard about a blonde man with the Pretorius girl."
Kommadagga short story: Twee vuilpoppe
2020-12-02"I am your son, and we are alike in so many ways. Yes, I like boys, but only to play with. But girls, girls I love. Only girls."
LAW FOR ALL's Top 10: "Exit" by Maretha Maartens
2020-11-20"Twenty-nine minutes before her exit, Heaven-Leigh wanted something to eat – vetkoek with golden syrup. No, not an apple. Vetkoek with syrup ..."
Along came the wind
2020-11-16"Thus the dead speak swift as the wind?
The chiming tunes,
The thumbing thunder that rolls,
smashing the hills in moments of grace."
Circles in the sand
2020-10-19"Where do you come from, little one
from the soil that births stone and cement
endlessly perfect control
souls searching for meaning."
Candles
2020-10-14"Thick candles enjoy the heat. Though their glow melts
those next to them, wax drips and widens
their feet – their foundations grow."
Night in Corona City
2020-10-08"In the beginning, we obeyed whatever they said. Everything we heard about this unknown virus was terrifying. How unstoppable it was. How it could leap from person to person like contagious lightning. How slim the chances were of surviving it. How horrible the death that resulted. The human race had no immunity ..."
LAW FOR ALL’s Top 10: "Breath of law" by Inga Ntantala
2020-10-06"In this world, each person is protected by an armour of rights, and all who infringe shall face the smite of justice for their transgression."
#inittogether
2020-09-08"The days, bursting with purpose,
now linger
between the hours
of empty sunrises"
Mma Africa
2020-09-03"Jy hoort by ’n wêreldkongres –
hervormer, strateeg, raadgewer, planmaker, volharder."