Four:
If I told you that I want all of this to be like this thirty years from now,
Would you call me hopeful, or stupid?
Do you think we’ll stay? Or will one of us go?
If I get lost,
I hope to go in a circle,
And wind up back with you.”
Genre: Nostalgia, Wanderlust, Youth, Love, and Melancholy
Planting Seeds by Abu B. Rafique
One:
Sometimes I wonder, if I’m remembering something hard enough, are you remembering it too?
It’s like smoke now, slightly sweet,
And overwhelming,
And enough to make me dizzy if there’s too much.
I saw you in your pale yellow sundress with a tired smile on your face,
And the sun setting around us filled the sky with a pink light that made you shimmer as you walked,
I wished then that I didn’t have to leave anymore.
You and I walked two miles up the dirt road to your home,
And you showed me your grandfather’s apple trees,
You asked where I was going and then told me where you would like to go.
I remember the smell of,
Apples,
Your perfume,
And the candles inside.
You gave me a necklace before I left and you seemed to understand.
I’ve met many since then, but none seem to UNDERSTAND.
I think of you,
Often.
Two:
Where should we go?
Should we go,
North? To Canada?
Or west? To California?
Maybe south? To Georgia?
Should we live up in the mountains?
Out in the desert?
In a lonely cabin?
Does it have to be “we?”
You can stay,
I don’t like me, so I’ll go.
And keep going.
Maybe, eventually, I’ll be able to get away,
Maybe not.
I guess I’ll go,
And find out.
Three:
You sit there in your denim jacket,
And black jeans,
And black boots,
And colorful hairbands on your fingers,
With your hair tied back in a ponytail.
And you want to give a chance,
And get a chance,
And stop pushing away,
Or running away from,
Everyone who tries to love you.
Four:
If I told you that I want all of this to be like this thirty years from now,
Would you call me hopeful, or stupid?
Do you think we’ll stay? Or will one of us go?
Give back the exuberant days of my childhood mama
You let him torture me with exhausting kisses
Unbridled rounds
Exerting forces of anger unto me
I shudder
Convulse into the defunct graves of his pleasantry
Ripped, raped, round and round
Genre: Nostalgia, Childhood, Humanity
Ndinike ubuntombi bam (Give back my virginity)
by Ntokozo Makeleni
Give back the exuberant days of my childhood mama
You let him torture me with exhausting kisses
Unbridled rounds
Exerting forces of anger unto me
I shudder
Convulse into the defunct graves of his pleasantry
Ripped, raped, round and round
Pleasantries abound
Commanding the earth to bring back my virginity a million times
And this nigga ask If he can hit it?
Mama ndinike ubuntombi bam
Mother give me my virginity
My childhood
I want to see and feel the red waters of my entirety trickle down my vigilant legs
I want to feel my breasts grow showily
Gnawing trough these restraints
My chest
Your yellow milk
It has become venous to me
Snakes never cared for their young so I cook and clean
Carry mortifying burdens with my incisors
And wash my hammered hands off of my mother’s disgraces
Wash away the three thousand nine hundred and ninety nine million times we held hands
Wash away the words thrown against walls these hands are tired of building
Wash away the night’s before birthdays
Wash away the beating stacatto against my chest
My mother
Your chest
I laid on for supposed
Hope
Affection
Kindness
Righteousness
Purity
And love Without knowing
Without knowing the rustled rotten patches of your heart
Without knowing the selfish pastures of your soul
Without knowing the hate brawling through your prestressed mind
And in and out your milk
This gall
In and out
Olubisi bujike bangukrakrayo kum
Thixo nditywine
Ndifuna ubuntombi bam kumamam
Ndinike ubuntombi bam
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