“Strangers kiss softly as moths” by Xabiso Vili

A quote from Michael Ondaatje’s “In the skin of a lion”

You burnt me
With your singed,
Still-warm fluttering
Kisses,
Or was it I
Who burnt you?

I still can’t decide
Who was the flame
And who was it that
Flew too close
To a candlestick sun.

All that’s left now
Is the wax
From haphazard wings
Or from candlesticks
And the smell of sulphur
From matchstick kisses.

Tonight, Xabiso is Bruce Banner. Always angry. This is how he has learnt to control the Hulk. Perhaps anger is a metaphor for love. He is remembering times she hollered her loneliness into the wind and nothing howled back. These are the midnights he dreads.