I wish you were here to share:
how you brawled with death
while she counted her coins,
casually throwing glances
your way as her tally rose.
how you evacuated yourself
when you were the house
draped in crime scene tape;
lady of the manic manor.
how you made an antidote
when you were the poison,
swallowing lost men whole
and spitting their lungs out.
I wish you were here to see:
how I bear grief’s weight
in the soft arm of memory.
this is how I think of you:
a firefly in hell’s crosshairs.
Nkateko Masinga is an award-winning South African writer whose poetry has been translated into French, Bengali and Tamil. Her next poetry book, ‘Daughter Wound’, will be published by Hazel Press in 2024.