if you can bear it, let us embrace
before my heart forgets your chest
& allow me one last glance at your face
before my eyes forget perfection’s best
incarnation in human form
& while my hands are still warm
with the familiarity of your touch,
let me spill the deluge inside me
slowly. before this flood engulfs
us, remind me that love once did
the same. it did not start like this
& it does not have to end like this.
Nkateko Masinga is an award-winning South African writer and scholar. She is a 2019 Fellow of the Ebedi International Writers Residency, a 2018 Mandela Washington Fellow and a Golden Key Scholar. She was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2018 and her work has received support from Pro Helvetia Johannesburg and the Swiss Arts Council. In 2019, she co-won the Brittle Paper Anniversary Award. Nkateko is the director of the Internship Program at Africa In Dialogue, as well as the founder and managing director of NSUKU Publishing Consultancy. She is a graduate of the University of Iowa’s 2021 International Writing Program (IWP) and served at guest editor of the ‘Please See Me’ Summer Supplement, comprised of work by fellow IWP alumni. In 2022 she was selected by News24 as one of South Africa’s 30 Young Mandelas of the Future.