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France @en
He strode to the policeman writhing in pain on the pavement, shot him and walking to the car, picked up something on the road. They drove off. Because if you’ve firebombed offices and killed twelve people, you should think of leaving the area. And I wondered: what are human beings?
The world in 50 words by Will van der Walt
The world in 50 words is a maverick, a flash saga, a fugitive amongst forms, but when light breaks, the face is clear. The intrigue of a short story, the seed of a novel, the taste of poetry, the pimento of haiku – There … think that should be fifty.
North Korea
Beloved Leader towered over him as he sat at the computer. “You are our supreme technician. Look where you like but hack them … to pieces.” And he waddled off with the entourage. The man turns to the screen. The wide world is open. He’s the freest citizen of this serfdom.
December 25, 2014
The world in 50 words by Will van der Walt
The world in 50 words is a maverick, a flash saga, a fugitive amongst forms, but when light breaks, the face is clear. The intrigue of a short story, the seed of a novel, the taste of poetry, the pimento of haiku – There … think that should be fifty.
Cuba @en
A four-chord vamp and his knobbly fingers seize the keys. The faded velvet voice caresses the melody. He pauses. “Politicians rise,” he says to the listening boy, “they fall, vanish.” He turns to the yellowed keys. “But …” his fingers dive again “the dreams of people, like music, go on.”
December 22, 2014
The world in 50 words by Will van der Walt
The world in 50 words is a maverick, a flash saga, a fugitive amongst forms, but when light breaks, the face is clear. The intrigue of a short story, the seed of a novel, the taste of poetry, the pimento of haiku – There … think that should be fifty.
World
In smoke and noise, he seized us, thrust assault rifles into our trembling hands. We were young. In two years he won the struggle and became president. But I hadn’t been paid. My buddies neither. We still got the rifles and we’re not going away. He’s old, but we’re sixteen.
December 8, 2014
(Painting by Allison Bruns)
The world in 50 words by Will van der Walt
The world in 50 words is a maverick, a flash saga, a fugitive amongst forms, but when light breaks, the face is clear. The intrigue of a short story, the seed of a novel, the taste of poetry, the pimento of haiku – There … think that should be fifty.
South Africa @en
« I’m sorry your daughter has died. »
He turned from the window. He knew her love for him too, had gone. As a leader, he’d downplayed the warnings about the pandemic. Daily, statistics proliferated; cries against him rose.
He turned again to the window. The city was disappearing into the sunset.
Novembre 24, 2014
The world in 50 words by Will van der Walt
The world in 50 words is a maverick, a flash saga, a fugitive amongst forms, but when light breaks, the face is clear. The intrigue of a short story, the seed of a novel, the taste of poetry, the pimento of haiku – There … think that should be fifty.
Burkina Faso @en
He’d ruled with a fist for thirty years. Then streets filled with shouting faces. He fled. In silence, he sips an aperitif on a palm-fringed terrace. The waiter with cheek requests payment. “Do you know who I am?” the man demands. The waiter shrugs. “I won’t , if you don’t.”
Novembre 6, 2014
The world in 50 words by Will van der Walt
The world in 50 words is a maverick, a flash saga, a fugitive amongst forms, but when light breaks, the face is clear. The intrigue of a short story, the seed of a novel, the taste of poetry, the pimento of haiku – There … think that should be fifty.
Africa
Warmly charmed by her, he suavely asked where she was from. “Eastern Congo,” she said. “Old enough to remember the Troubles.”
Since those years his rise in politics had been meteoric. Now he cast his eyes down. Her eyes were on him. “My body remembers you. Intimately. With great horror.”
October 27, 2014
The world in 50 words by Will van der Walt
The world in 50 words is a maverick, a flash saga, a fugitive amongst forms, but when light breaks, the face is clear. The intrigue of a short story, the seed of a novel, the taste of poetry, the pimento of haiku – There … think that should be fifty.
France @en
Crossing Place Charles de Gaulle, I tripped and fell over uneven paving. No one stopped to attend my searing pain. A black man stopped, stooped with care. “Ca va?” he asked – a moment amid silver fountains of shattering stereotypes, obliterating the slow river of complaisance – if not his, then mine.
October 23, 2014
The world in 50 words by Will van der Walt
The world in 50 words is a maverick, a flash saga, a fugitive amongst forms, but when light breaks, the face is clear. The intrigue of a short story, the seed of a novel, the taste of poetry, the pimento of haiku – There … think that should be fifty.
Morocco @en
“Your dance sweeps me away,” he said to her as she stepped off the floor, glistening with sweat from passion guitars. “You are from across the sea.” She stopped, knocking back her wet black hair. She looked beyond him. “When I dance, there are no countries. Learn from that ecstasy.”
October 17, 2014
The world in 50 words by Will van der Walt
The world in 50 words is a maverick, a flash saga, a fugitive amongst forms, but when light breaks, the face is clear. The intrigue of a short story, the seed of a novel, the taste of poetry, the pimento of haiku – There … think that should be fifty.
China
“Ah, mother,” he said downcast, “two months ago, at the protests in Hong Kong, Mei and I overnighted in a sleeping-bag and now she’s expecting.” His mother smiled warmly. “Ah, my child, your father and I were at Tiananmen Square in 1989 and you were conceived under a blanket.”
October 7, 2014
The world in 50 words by Will van der Walt
The world in 50 words is a maverick, a flash saga, a fugitive amongst forms, but when light breaks, the face is clear. The intrigue of a short story, the seed of a novel, the taste of poetry, the pimento of haiku – There … think that should be fifty.
World
Ants came. She sprayed insecticide. Thirty days, no ants. Again they came, as if nothing had happened. She crusaded. Again, no ants. Then the sky changed, the land grew hard. Humanity cried to heaven. The earth yellowed and humanity disappeared. Silence grew. The ants came. As if nothing had happened.
September 30, 2014
The world in 50 words by Will van der Walt
The world in 50 words is a maverick, a flash saga, a fugitive amongst forms, but when light breaks, the face is clear. The intrigue of a short story, the seed of a novel, the taste of poetry, the pimento of haiku – There … think that should be fifty.
Africa
“Touch me,” said the child to the man from Mars. From behind his plastic visor, the man looked into the bright watery eyes. He regarded the gross glove on his hand. “Touch me, I’m going,” the voice squeaked. The man reached to unclasp the thick heavy glove. But he stopped.
September 25, 2014
The world in 50 words by Will van der Walt
The world in 50 words is a maverick, a flash saga, a fugitive amongst forms, but when light breaks, the face is clear. The intrigue of a short story, the seed of a novel, the taste of poetry, the pimento of haiku – There … think that should be fifty.
United States
“I was a child of the Sixties,” he said to his wife when he was brought home at three a.m. “I sang ‘Give peace a chance’.”
“And?” she asked.
“I’ve just enlisted forty nations for another war.”
She smiled sadly. “I know even that can’t kill your belief in peace.”
September 18, 2014
The world in 50 words by Will van der Walt
The world in 50 words is a maverick, a flash saga, a fugitive amongst forms, but when light breaks, the face is clear. The intrigue of a short story, the seed of a novel, the taste of poetry, the pimento of haiku – There … think that should be fifty.
World
« Sick of the news – endless shuffling refugees; brick-pile cities; ambulances; trucks of militias; starving children – I twisted off the TV. I went to sleep. And in the cold hours, I was woken. Somewhere, a woman weeping. I went into the lounge, switched on the lights. But there was no one. »
September 3, 2014
The world in 50 words by Will van der Walt
The world in 50 words is a maverick, a flash saga, a fugitive amongst forms, but when light breaks, the face is clear. The intrigue of a short story, the seed of a novel, the taste of poetry, the pimento of haiku – There … think that should be fifty.
