Afrikaans
Kom kuier by my. Los jou warm baars by jou swart kat. Kuier by my waar die winter jou nek kan kus. Kuier by my, waar jy altyd jou Deadly Ponies handsak onder oog moet hou. Kuier by my waar die vodka die lemmetjie sap oorweldig. Kom sit by my in ‘n rokers-benewelde-droom kroeg waar niemand Engels praat nie.
Come visit me. Leave your warm perch with your black cat. Visit me where winter can kiss your neck. Visit me where you need to keep an eye on your Deadly Ponies handbag. Visit me where vodka outweighs the lime. Come sit with me in a smoker’s-dive-bar dream where no one speaks English.
Hear Imé read:
The house bound friend appeal
More about this story, and the anthology Te Moana o Reo | Ocean of Languages, featuring more than 40 languages of Aotearoa, can be found at The Cuba Press, here.
Imé Corkery, poet by choice and chronic-illness warrior by design. Imé has a master’s in professional writing from the University of Waikato. Afrikaans is the language adopted by various members in her family during their 200 years in South Africa. The mixture of languages that formed Afrikaans echo the complexity of Imé’s own Afro-European heritage.