There is nothing
beautiful
about betrayal
Even the lines of its poem
remain un-syncopated
A missed heartbeat
There is a breath in the center
of something that should be whole
A silence in what should be music
In the little hollow
the little death
fading into a damp fury
Don’t you dare cry
Give no tears for this storm that you were not invited to
Don’t you dare look
(Anymore)
If it dies;
You leave it;
Leave the lie
to slowly rot in some forgotten corner
Here
Take these swords
/unsheathed/
in each bruised hand
Walk with purpose
Look the oncoming traffic
blind in the eye
Louella Sullivan lives in Grahamstown, and is currently an English teacher and Pilates instructor. She has been published in Aerodrome, New Contrast, and New Coin. In 2017, Aerial Press published her first poetry collection: Salt – “a delicately woven account of pregnancy and birth”.