PIKELELA GUTYUNGWA MEMOIRS

In the beginning of 2020 the whole world was stunned after getting the rude awakening of having to learn to fight an invisible enemy identified as Covid-19. People got sick and started dying in their numbers like flies. Science didn't know what to do in order to stop this carnage. Finally, it was determined beyond doubt we were inside the cyclone of a Major Pandemic! The Pandemic was Phase One. Science through Technology had to make a dash for it and create a vaccine which was going to slow down the infections and deaths from Covid-19. It was a spirited marathon to the labs, constant tests for efficacy by different drug companies: when finally many lights were spotted from the tunnel of death. Vaccines were created in record time. Immediately the positive effects took place as the curves of infections and deaths began to drop. Vaccine Development became a Second Phase of the Pandemic. VACCINES ARE NOT CURES TO VIRUSES BUT REPELLENTS JUST LIKE INSECTICIDES ARE TO MOSQUITOES AND FLI...

LINTSHONTSHO LIKATATA ELI! Ntshontsho Lionel Gutyungwa  20/05/1962 - 24/09/2021 “ Iyekeni inkwenkwe izonwabele, kuba lento iyinkwenkwe imdaka, ligeza! kuze kubekh’ indoda kuzalw’ inkwenkwe: ze umfazi abonis' ukuzinza kwakhe!” uNtshontsho ube ngeyo nkwenkwe nje, ube ngengo nyana kwisini. uNtshontsho ube lintshontsho likaTata Yinkwenkwe kaTata le! uthe wakulizwa ngonyana phakathi koonyana bakhe, into kaFuyizizwe yonela yancam’ ingeka gribi: yathi olusana lubomvana, lumpundu mpundu lintshontsho lam. Lintshontsho likaTata eli! xeshekweni kuphel’ isonk’ ekhayeni, kwaku phel’ umgubo, wena nyama, swekile netyuwa: ikhab’ ukwal’ isoporo kway’ ixhalabil’ nendlala uTata akanoshukuma noba angaxelwa, engxengwa. abe cwaka, etye tyum ngath’ akevanga nto into kaFuyizizwe ayino phakamis’ nomnwe lo: engeka vakalis’ umsindo wakh’ uNtshontsho. sakuvakal’ isgezo ezibhuqa bhuqa phantsi elila: Tata kuph’ imali kulanjiw’ ekhayeni! zide zigrobok’ iipokoto zikaTata, ayikhuphe iphum’ imali noba encwina nje k...

Dani Bernardo 14/07/1964 - 24/09/2021   all smiles, all laughs and no tears was all that dazzled my mind and warmed my heart the first time I was introduced to her. she appeared easy, carefree and not  bothered to know what I am even though  this was the first time our worlds collided. she cared for me like a dear sister would. all smiles, all laughs and no tears she seemed to telepathize me: I live here. I am what I am, this is my world, didn't my sister tell you? no tears. they say, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step: but my journey of a million miles with Dani began  with all smiles, all laughs and no tears. our new tiny world boomed into panoramic  valley of assorted coloured scented-roses. our hearts fused and melted into one beat and shared all smiles, all laughs and no tears. One sad evening after my brother had  died in his sleep and in the same day: phone rang, wife answered and suddenly: shrieking screams of painful cries of g...

Pain: Always Stronger Than Tears  Whether we see, hear it or never, in life: everything God ever created has tears. Forests, mountains, rivers and oceans: all cry, wail and grovel with melancholy. Birds of the sky, crawling animals and all marine creatures, insects: all tear up. A giant pond of zillion tears, our world is: God founded it upon many teary waters. Teary skies reflecting blue ocean tears: mother nature sobbing rainy teardrops.   Tear-scarred, blighted and vitiated souls covetous Cain slew dear brother Abel. Thus committed the first millennial sin, yoking humanity to endless teary pain.  Decades, centuries over millenniums  collided and morphed up time of pain. Tears are sad tracks left out by pain. The world was not prepared for the tears  and pain and calamities brought  In by the twin-year twenty-twenty. nefarious Pandemic rocked the world. It was not history which taught me  about the pandemic world of 1918 but the vicious virus in the ...

HE WAS MY BROTHER… Like every new arrival in any happy family.  Stera brought happiness and lit up the house  with smiling faces all around: the day he was born. Even though years ago, I still remember so vividly,  like yesterday, when we first met in Cape Town City.  How my brother took both my hands, turned them over like a fingerprint expert:  examined as he compared them with his palms. Did he find the connecting dots in the palms of our hands? I don’t know...perhaps he felt our heartbeats race in perfect rhythm. Whatever it was, Stera made our reunion so special. He knew we were Brothers... Oh man, My Brother: he quipped. I can’t believe this! We both laughed as we locked up in a tender embrace  one could only get from one’s true blood. We looked into each other’s eyes and laughed out loud.    disturbing the peace of the people milling around. He was my brother. I sat down wit...

Time never ages! BY SYDNEY GUTYUNGWA We were all conceived and born right on time: none of all the living were born before their time; nor even dead, before time. Time never ages, time never fades; it’s life that expires inside the mould of time! The world goes round and round, on her ageless hinges given to her by the hands of time: time always gives and never ever receives anything in return! Time is the Eye of God that never blinks; time is God’s bedrock of Being, His Deity! Man invented the clock long after time had already begun ticking: time looked on and yawned as man tried to catch up with her timeless and invisible tracks! Time uses the clock on the wall to apply her makeup; while man hangs onto her arms for dear life! Time never ticks on, its our hearts that beat in sync with the decaying nature, into which we’re born: to suffer therein as time looks on without landing a helping hand! Time is as constant in the light, as she is in darkness: dictates and rhymes with Mother Nat...

  Razmatazzed Rhythm For Two LIKE A BOLT FROM THE BLUE, SHE BURST INTO MY SCENE: COZIED UP NEXT TO ME. SHE SMILED. I YIELDED BACK, LIKE OLD PALS...WE CHATTED NEW PAGE ADDED TODAY. OUR VOICES WATTLED, THEN OUR EYES PEEKED: HEARTS SCINTILLATED JAGGEDLY. WINGLESS SPIRITS SOARED HIGH UN-ORCHESTRAED MELODY CHIMES RAZZMATAZZED RHYTHM FOR TWO NOW YESTERDAY REPEATS FOREVER. Poetic Lyrics Written by: Sydney Pikelela Gutyungwa ©2020 Background Song: It's Friday Night From The Album: Music From The Hang Smooth Jazz Artist: Brian Culbertson ©2020

Just A Minute Ago! I often find it very amazing how humans underestimate the power of time. How oft we seem to be repeating the very same mistakes done in bold for all of us to see; by our ancestors. In the wildlife animal kingdom, a minute is worth a heartbeat: that resonates between; hunger and full stomach, death and survival! just a minute, wait a second, i will be with you in a jiffy, just hang in there! Time? What time are you talking about in this time and age? Only if I took more time to think about every single step I took in this life of mine; then perchance, I might have delayed and averted a shipload of mishaps and lifetime of miseries and regrets: I keep seeing every time I look back over my shoulders! All this undoing of my life by myself; my past failures, are supposed to be behind me: common reasoning tells me; but, they seem to forever linger in my mind as I struggle to find my way through the mirag...