To barter with one’s body sans care,
one should have a horse in the race:
papers stating a life worth its acres,
a call to the bluff of the health scare.
I secured a burial site for the sacred
puzzle of bones God called to dance
for an estimated decade of decades,
defying the seer’s sign or their cards.
Here briefly, briefly her, hope’s cadre,
care’s pilot, patriot of the last chance
when every remaining limb is scarred
beyond what befits a redemption arc.
Nkateko Masinga is an award-winning South African writer whose work has been translated into French, Bengali, Kannada and Tamil. Her latest book, ‘Daughter Wound’, was published by Hazel Press in 2024. Nkateko teaches a poetry course at the Lolwe Creative Academy.