In this soft caramel season
we are in the thick of love
under secrets held by the rain
atop murmuring moss
my meaty tongue
curls under your watch
I pull the kitten skin from your neck
lick must from your mouth
everything a glisten
everywhere a growl
listen for it the shift
the clumping earth
the slack of trees
the tense of muscle
primed for fight
for flight.
Saaleha Idrees Bamjee is a photographer and writer based in Johannesburg. She has an MA in Creative Writing and is the winner of the 2014 Writivism Short Story Prize. Her poetry has appeared in New Contrast, New Coin, Ons Klyntji, Aerodrome and the Sol Plaatje European Union Poetry anthologies, among others, as well as the special South African issue of Illuminations. She was the Writivism Emerging African Writers resident at Stellenbosch University in October 2016. Her debut collection of poetry is forthcoming from uHlanga Press in 2018 .