I have grown old
My skin is soft and my bones are brittle
My gums are just holes
And my eyes are portals
I have become the final letter
Ending off a series of letters I have written for the young me
The first letter I wrote said:
” Do not hold your breath in
You are beautiful when you breathe
When parts of you spill out of your jeans
You don’t have to look like your mom
You have to look like you”
I was only 16 then and learning that my body is a house of gold
And I needed to remind myself that in order to avoid living in pain
The second letter read:
“Wine is bitter to the less travelled
But to those who seek to embrace the journey
Wine soothes the aches”
I was 28 and acknowledging where I have been
And where I am still going
How the journey is painting my face one stroke at a time
The final letter I wrote read:
“I have been here before
Time traveling through ink and paper
I will return here again
Through pen and paper”
Letters remind us
That we have been here before
Ntaoleng Patience Labane is an artist from the Free State. She is a poet, a visual artist, a writer, author of Poetry Diary of a Feeling Soul. A hardcore Christian above all. She has a podcast Her Thoughts, which can be downloaded or listened to at Spotify, Breaker, Google podcasts, Oncast, and several other podcast streaming platforms.