The air is mustier today
for it is mourning the loss of your stay.
You were my every day
and of your return, there’s been no say.
Carefully,
you began to untangle yourself from me
mimicking the decisive move in a game of pick-up sticks
with no winner.
My core is a valley
awaiting a new tenant
and lodging of unfamiliar hues of debris
in my old trainers.
Choices and chances;
your departure has further marred the canvas
But I guess it is time to unlearn
the habit of my grain
as I meet the latest carrier of my gene-
my Persona of twenty eighteen!
Sumaiya Vawda is an 18-year-old scholar in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. When she’s not procrastinating with school assignments or engaging in political discourse, she may be found pouring herself onto paper.