it’s your cool lips
your doubtful kiss
your glittering eyes
it’s those childish
questions raised harmlessly
which i forever fail to answer
it’s the conversations you love
and the insight you have seek
that makes you my unhampered refuge
Nkululeko Zondi is an HIV/Aids Educator at the City of Johannesburg Municipality and an Occupational Journalism student at Fray College of Communications, he was born in Durban and grew up in Soweto, Johannesburg. A former undergraduate student of the University of Johannesburg, he holds a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts from the University of South Africa. He writes poetry and non-fictional prose in both isiZulu and English; and has been published in numerous online literary publications such as Poetry Potion, AVBOB Poetry, Kalahari Review, Fundza.mobi, Aerodrome, Noisemedium, consciousness.co.za among others and anthologies like Dear, South Africa (2015) and Between the Silence: Poetry for Human Rights (2021) as well as various South African newspaper publications like the Mail & Guardian, the Star, Sowetan, the New Age, Citizen and the Daily Maverick. Zondi recently became second-prize winner in both AVBOB Poetry’s Ecopoetry mini-competition and AVBOB Poetry’s Family First mini-competition.