Sex and the married woman

My life goes whooshing by and I am left, confused and breathless, in it's wake.
My responsibilities, and yours, dance in the graveyard where my dreams sleep.

The baby needs supper,
The printer is broken,
The gardener asks for a short-term loan.

Meetings and greetings,
Clients and aphids,
Phone calls from the boss while the sausages sizzle.

Homework and housework,
Domestic politics,
There's a police car in a driveway three houses away.

My parents are aging,
The dogs need de-worming,
And I forgot the bill, so my Internet's down.

Cosmo says:
"Red lingerie is the thing!"
While a colleague, respectfully, addresses my breasts.

Keeping my temper,
Holding my tongue,
Making sure everyone still gets along.

Dieting, planning,
Getting things done,
Going to gym if I find the time

Sex?  And the married woman?

Chased by Elephants

This is a post that I wrote over a year ago, but never published  (I am not sure why!).  It might be a little outdated, but I think the basic idea still holds true!

I woke up at 3am this morning from a dream which ended with me being chased by an angry elephant cow. And, since many of my creative insights come to me in dreams, I thought I'd share this one with you.

This was a dream about complacency. In it, I found myself in a large encampment amongst a herd of quietly grazing African elephant cows and their calves. A little nervous at first, I soon relaxed when I saw that all the big mama elephants were happily munching away and not terribly interested in my goings on. So naturally, I took an interest in the little calves, there was this particularly cute little one that seemed just as interested in me...until its mother showed up! Well, she was having none of it! I soon found myself with my heart in my throat, dodging the colossal feet, tusks and trunk of about a ton of Angry Maternal Instinct. Fortunately, I woke up before I could come to any harm!

Now, I am no wildlife expert, but having grown up in SA and visited my fair share of game farms, I should most certainly have known better. An African elephant is not a friendly creature. Beautiful? Yes. Majestic? Certainly. Docile? Forget it! I once had the experience of hearing a set of Land Rover gears scream painful protest when our guide jammed it into reverse at the sight of an elephant bull raising its head, putting its ears forward and taking a few steps in direction of the pesky humans studying its placidly grazing family. Its "Back-off, Buster!" intentions were unmistakable, and there was no way any of the mere humans sitting in an uncovered, off-road vehicle were in any position to tangle with it. So we scooted...fast!

So, what does this have to do with creativity? Well, in my estimation, complacency is the opposite of creativity. South Africa is in a pretty tight spot right now. We're in the middle of a serious energy crisis, interest rates are sky-rocketing, and we're faced with a world-economic slow-down. We are also in the unenviable position of having Zimbabwe as one of our closest neighbours, and have recently had to deal with the horrors of xenophobic violence due to the massive influx of illegal immigrants. We have been too complacent for too long, riding the crest of the "New South African" wave, and we have ignored "Mama Elephant's" air sniffing and ear twitching! So, instead of looking around while the going was good and figuring out ways to make our progress sustainable, we've rested on our laurels - and now we are facing a very angry elephant.

But, perhaps these challenges will shake us out of our complacency? If complacency is the opposite of creativity, perhaps a little adversity is exactly what South Africa needs. The trick is to use the energy sparked by this adversity to come up with innovative solutions.

Playing with poetry...

I love the way that a poem can succinctly capture and express a moment.  Here's one of mine...

Touch
Flesh
Warm, smooth
Soft and firm
Your muscles move beneath my fingers
As you lean into my hands
You feel like like poetry.