V. A. Haunted

By KHULILE NXUMALO

from Requiem for This House

 

the father will definitely be burnt
the mother too, will be burnt
the little boys are then, already burnt

even the miracles the little girl had made,
will get burned, the little girl’s mind was always awake

circuited words in her brain would all the time
foreshock, would all the time
see the insane. . .

waiting is like this, a demon
a startled curfew, already

within streams
within lakes in the U.S.
we have burnt wings of digital civilisation

such a sad triumph
with this highest daze of history, and within cabled streams
Mediterranean seas, drone

for immediate and ephemeral
satisfactions

for giver
for receiver
for observer (U.N.)

fiends, friends, and mighty nations

for fellow travellers
for your ordinary fan-club members, conditionality

or due to these times, foam falls from desires
foiled anguishes, shit fills the whole picture

within such nights, my love, my tongue daring like a blind child,
were they to result, into my long-awaited stance

coming out is the night, going to shower my face with light,
willing to die, bleeding ancient weights of a torn memory.

 

 

Khulile Nxumalo has worked as a television documentary director and producer and is currently commissioning editor for drama at the South African Broadcasting Corporation.

Click here to purchase Issue 04

V. A. Haunted

Related Posts

Purple flowers & arboretums in in Daisy State Park

Three Poems from Arkansas

SANDY LONGHORN
You are standing in an Ozark oasis, / the park interpreter tells our tiny group / of three strangers. We have walked / twenty yards onto the Ozark Highland Trail

November 2024 Poetry Feature: New Work from our Contributors

G. C. WALDREP
I am listening to the slickened sound of the new / wind. It is a true thing. Or, it is true in its falseness. / It is the stuff against which matter’s music breaks. / Mural of the natural, a complicity epic. / The shoals, not quite distant enough to unhear— / Not at all like a war. Or, like a war, in passage,

Caroline M. Mar Headshot

Waters of Reclamation: Raychelle Heath Interviews Caroline M. Mar

CAROLINE M. MAR
That's a reconciliation that I'm often grappling with, which is about positionality. What am I responsible for? What's coming up for me; who am I in all of this? How can I be my authentic self and also how do I maybe take some responsibility?