(2 Oceans Apart)
(2 Oceans Apart)
What are these
but words?
Words
lunging,
tripping,
shaping,
taking form
Words bursting out of themselves
To say all the things
I would tell you
do with you
give to you
if
I could.
What are these but words
typed
everyday
every hour
Words awaiting a response
of more words
Counted-on
to make
each day whole.
And these words
are just words
On a live wire which brings
my words to you
your words
to me
And without this live wire
these words would be
an understanding
which would lay latent
or build tentatively
or die
of the exhaustion
of waiting
Because they would be words on paper
which would travel between us
at a pace
far slower
than the velocity of this wavelength
which has seized us
This live wire
wires us together
through time zones
radically different
spaces not consistent
Bringing to life our words
which are sweating, bleeding
to keep alive a meeting
in which our presences seemed to meld
At a speed quicker than time
in a language beyond words.
Salimah Valiani is the author of four collections of poetry, and the poem-story Dear South Africa, (http://www.praxismagonline.com/dear-south-africa-by-salimah-valiani/)
She lives in many places and comes from 100 (million) years of wayfaring.