THOUGHTS OF AN AFTER ACT




Let us pose for a this moment

To think about the whole moment

Turn it around with a fork

This fanatical reading of my life

This after thought this relishing

What it was we did together

And spilling myself over the side

Of this bed where you and I were



It frightens me when he wakes up

His toes are like interesting sticks

That will hide inside his shoes

The way they hid from me.

When he decided not to come again

And be the one who sidles

In this lonesome feeding of my being



Nothing seems to matter to your curly head

Your hair uncombed his beard forming

The mirror the man with the lean hips

Is stranger than the loan bin that I

I throw my remains in daily



Who said I would ever know my grief

When somebody is standing in my world

Looking at himself in a mirror

Where half of my body is looking

Its eyes searching for the parts of me

You failed to see when you were close



What is fake begins fake and ends fake

My mother used to say I should know

How to undo what is for what was not

Yet here I am not knowing that she was right

For what will become of the foreheads

Between which were words

That eat and open the deep

Where my not knowing lies.



My mirror self, my divided me

Sits up on the bed with the half

That was hidden from you

And wonders which part of it really works

When I am done with this punching

Of the thought that I clasp into one



Like my thighs closing

To their own loneliness.

They Say She is the Bravest

When she talks you hear what she says
She speaks louder than them all
Her voice rings into the nearby forest
Her body stands firmer than you know.

They say she is the boldest
Her body stands firm when she walks
She does not take hurried steps
She speaks softer than you know
When she gives instruction.

She laughs only when nobody is looking
She makes her point short all the time
She speaks into your ear sometimes
And does not want everybody to know.

We will Meet at the Women's Reed Dance

Women too can dance
Women too can get the reeds
And pile them outside the kraal
At the women's reed dance

July comes and women wait
No reed dance for women this year
They wait and wait
No reed dance again

When will we dance together?
When will we meet?
To do the dances of our people
With feet that are in shackles.

We danced yesterday
We will dance tomorrow
We will dance forever
And yet still be in chains

This dance does not free us
This dance makes us shake
Our bodies are released
Only for a short time.

When will we dance
and be the women
We really want to be
Where we can be loved
The way we want?

Klibhi Said It Is Alright

She said I should not feel sorry
When I take another woman's man
Because I cannot find one
That belongs to an animal

My sister symphathised with the wife
I was surprised
That she did not
Sympathise with me.

Klibhi said it is alright
To react funnily
When we see the wife
And pretend we have done
What any other girl would do.

Klibhi finds it easy
To upset others
Make as if they are nothing
When we aree also nothing

They say we like
To be seen in public
And be the talk of the town
They say I am "the Nori,"
The friend of Klibhi.

He Married Her afte Me

In single file we go
The wives of Mvasi
Same bags we carry
The wives of Mvasi

There came a time
When all was talked about
Was our outside looks
The wives of Mvasi
Are so beautiful

Did anyone ask
How beautiful Mvasi was
To have such beautiful wives
I ask the question
Because I hear he will add another one
Whom I can always tell, "He married you after me."
That is all the pride I have in this thing
Of being one of the many
Wives of Mvasi.

Lesson Number Two, Woman

I kept telling you
He says I cannot do it
He wants me to feel small
Says marriage is not for people
Who walk and talk like me.

Am I the one who comes back late?
Am I the one who spends all the money?
Am I the one who tells all the lies?
Am I the one who is doing it all
Like life only started with me?

He says I cannot doi it
If I leave him
I will never find another
Nobody wants people like me
Who have been around
And done it all

What have I done?
I just scrubbed the floor of the house
I washed our clothes
I sat in the sun outside the house.

He says I must not complain
I cannot do anything
He is not alone in this
His sisters also join him.
What can I do now?
Lesson number two, woman
Answers are in the question.

When Last Did you See Him?

The father of my child
Has disappeared from our lives
Everybody wants to know
When last I saw him.

My mother asks me all the time
My friends ask me too
They want to know the answer
I am too ashamed to speak out.

Now he is no longer with me everywhere
He runs away when I appear
Turns into another street and took a corner
When I needed milk for the baby.

My mother is the provider
She gives me her market money
To buy food for the baby
A soul from God cannot starve
While she is alive.

Shame on you to throw away
A boy like this one
He will grown and look for you
He is yours today and tomorrow
When you sober up come and do
What is needed of you.