There are days when I hold my breath,
Lungs clenched, tight in my palms…
afraid to let go
because the body is 70 percent water
And pardon you, I’d like to float when I drown…
With the buoyancy of a rejected sacrifice from Atlantis.
I want Poseidon to look at me with the rage of the seven seas, revolting against nature by withholding water from the flower god.
Withholding me, from petals.
But I’ll breathe, and dive for love to satisfy the propensity of a rose to make me bleed.
So if I drown, I’ll die knowing that a God was pleased.
Lindiwe is a writer of things from Johannesburg, South Africa.