I Told My Wife About You Poem by Sarah Mkhonza

I told my wife about you
Said a man who had a wife
For every letter of the
Alphabet and ran all of
Them like cars in a garage
Fueling them and emptying them
Of their money the way cars
Run out of fuel on the highway
Their tanks full of lies they
Left satisfied as they set
Off crying for more.

This cheap cheat that
Steals a glance at women
And they cling to him
As if he has love glue on him
For they never leave
Tells me he has told a wife
About me with a devil's wink
And I wonder which one
Of the many. For I know
They are as many as the
Demons that possessed
Legion and went into the
Pigs and sent them into
A sea of confusion and drowned
As do these women who are
So drunk with love they
Leave in a similar sea of
Confusion and you wonder
When and where they drown
drunk as they are with lies
They call love.


Now that the women form a
String of beads around his
Muscular neck I tell him
'I'm out.' As I say that
The next bead joins in
Before the hook closes
And says, 'I'm in.'
When will these beads
Loosen and fall off this
Thick giant's neck and
Get a hold of themselves
and run away from this man
For they have lost their
Minds, me included?

Tell me before I go out
And tell the Shark Tank
About this business of
Creating a small icon
That can tell women the
Word love has two consonants
And two vowels and none
of these begins which anything
That is like the word cheat
or cheap. For only the
Sharks can tell them that
They are playing the losing
Game before they lose in this
Business called Love them all.

Now tell me he told his wife
About me and I tell you
He told nobody and just walked
The same walk and talked the
Same talk and thought that
Dealing with me would be
Like going on a downward
Slope and I am telling you
This because the slope is
So steep that he needs all
The fingers to hold, and not
Just the one whom he has
Had every woman put a finger
on, calling it his ring finger.
Who told him my motto is get
them from whatever street it is
And get bamboozled by their
Tall bamboo tricks and get high
As the clouds with definitions
Of yourself as being in love when
You are being cheated and cheapened.
My mom said don't blame the man
But blame yourself and thought I
Knew what she was saying until I
Met the likes of this. I declared to
The world I was clever and in love
And then found myself in this and
Now the best thing is to tell the
World to judge how clever I can be.