“Who was the first to say I love you?”
a couple gets asked on a TV show,
and both lovers point at each other.
Typical. Who wants to admit losing
control, having a heart that veered
off the road into the wild unknown?
Blessed be love’s mystery; cursed
be loss’ misery. I have known both.
Who was the first to say I miss you
when the sky went dark? In Winter,
I traced the outline of your face, my
fingers warming as they went along,
which is to say:
I have known the touch of Summer.
The shapeshifter bleeds out of its
craters, made by comet collisions
and asteroids. Humanity prods its
nosy telescope at the blood moon,
feasting on free-falling lunar rocks.
Nkateko Masinga is an award-winning South African writer whose poetry has been translated into French, Bengali, Kannada and Tamil. Her latest poetry book, ‘Daughter Wound’, was published by Hazel Press in 2024.