Browsing Category

Trauma

Missing Her~By Mutshidzi

The 20 y/o girl I used to be.

If I could find you now, where would you be? In the sterile, chilled air of the oncology ward, listening to the steady drip-drip-drip of the poison that is also your salvation? Or are you in a university library, your head swimming…

I wish I had Said Nothing~By Mutshidzi

It’s past midnight.
I’m on the edge of my bed.
The only sounds…
my pounding heart
and my grandmother’s
ancient clock.
Tick-tock. Tick-tock.
It’s almost deafening.

Maybe I should sleep.
But what if I don’t wake up?
I can’t close my eyes.
My mind is just dancing to fear.
I’ve given myself a racing heart
just by thinking.

I wish I’d said nothing
when…

The Spirit of Miscarriage~ By Nonny Vee

The Pain of Miscarrying the seed you looked forward to seeing
Miscarriage, you are a thief
Miscarriage, you are cruel
Miscarriage, you are a restless wanderer, searching for the warriors of this earth whom you can attack.
I am talking about our mothers, our women, our birthers
Miscarriage, you never consider, but do as…

Dear Cancer ~ By Mutshidzi Kwinda

Dear Cancer,

You came into my life like a thief in the night. You didn’t just take away my health… You took ME. Piece by piece, year by year, a decade later, you stole things I can never get back. You took my strength and confidence. My body, once capable…

Reintroducing Myself ~ Mutshidzi Kwinda

Imagine this… a wide, clear blue African sky above you with the horizon that disappears behind the green hills and mountains, in a village filled with old, interesting stories passed down through generations. This is where I come from. My roots are fixed deep in the red most fertile…

All I Ever Wanted : To Be Seen~ By Mpundu Merci

Sometimes I wonder why it always has to be me,
The one who is left behind,
The odd one out,
The one making jokes that nobody laughs at,
Never anyone’s cup of tea.

I mean, you wouldn’t understand,
Since my face hides it so well.
You won’t see what’s behind this beautiful smile,
Or beneath this extroverted…

Don’t Judge! Think Twice ~By Annette

Most of us are in cocoons that only we as individuals are aware of. Pits that we fear the worst and would rather bury it in our hearts than speak it out. In our minds, we fear what people will perceive of us. Sometimes, we feel alone and have…

YOUR GROWN DAUGHTER

The joy of knowing I didn’t lose you—
The solace of knowing it could have been so much worse.
The pain you carried,
The self-hatred that consumed you,
I felt it.

The feeling of helplessness,
hopelessness, and despair
You tried to cover with your jokes,
I felt that so painfully
When I saw you on the
hospital bed in…

POEM: Mama, you traitor!

Mama, you traitor!

Mama promised me a quiet holiday,
While he promised me a quiet night,
Just us and the stars.

Two days, he said,
Two days I’d promised him,
Two days at Mama’s village.
A land where whispers linger in the fog,
Where news travels faster than curious neighbors peering over the fence,
And where the thatched…

Unspoken: Expressing My Life’s Story Through Poetry…

 

In tender years, life’s storms began to rage,
A matriarch’s loss, a heart’s turning page.
Four and a half, with my sister by my side,
Left in aunt’s care, our father went abroad to reside.

South Africa’s call, a new life to unfold,
Education’s promise, young dreams to mold.
But stepmother’s shade cast darkness on…