I am blowing embers of my self
away from my sanity
sweeping ashes of my existence
into neat little piles
to be thrown away
with the other dirty things
that no longer belong here
I reek of charred expectation
of loss
of never-ending need
things I cannot wash off
much like the stench
in the way they call me
woman.
Kgothatso Maditse is a Johannesburg based writer, poet and storyteller. She is insanely passionate about contemporary African stories and the dual role of African writers as historians – two of the many reasons she pursued a postgraduate degree in Publishing Studies. Her work interrogates history, tradition (aka the way things have been done), identity, gender and the black home’s influence on these.