I feel stretched
not in a bendy way like elastic
more like the tearing and ripping of a cheap plastic bag
my empathy is weary and exhausted
it is too much to hold me
and you
something’s got to alleviate the weight
I hope not to let go of myself in the attempt to
hold you
Thobile Ndimande (she/her) reigns from the same township, writer and scholar Njabulo Ndebele stems from – Duduza (Ekurhuleni) in South Africa. She studied African Literature at the University of the Witwatersrand and obtained her Masters with distinction. Her research broadly focuses on South(ern) African Black femininities of the twentieth century as they are represented in print culture which is adjacent to relevant media technologies. She is presently a graduate student at Yale University pursuing her doctorate studies.