The Uninvited White Carriage Poem by Niki Nicholas Nkuna

I had my heart intact,
All my possessions intact,
Sunrise, sundown I count my possessions,
As always, I find them in the right number and intact,
I call them by name and they respond in the usual unique sound,
How I liked the sound, so melodious in the ear and mind,
It made me believe it is there to be heard for a life time,
The distance between in-nest and out-nest is short and far,
Hoping I will hear the sound nearer than far to feel safe,
The whiff of the swing through the air as I fly out of my sisters hands,
Sure to come back to her safe and warm hands,
I enjoyed the ride; I enjoyed the ride in my sleep and conscience,

Little did I know the warm hands will go away by the spirit of the white carriage,
A journey of no return, living the sound and cold behind,
Little did I know my heart will be ripped lobe by lobe by the jinks of the spirit,
As my siblings disappear, one by one, in cold comfort,
The first one to mount the uninvited white carriage,
Was the first one who saw the light before me,
My beloved sister … Poppy!

She left in a thin body of bones,
She was a bag of bones indeed!
Comatose, eyes in a skeleton scull, looking at me and heavenward,
I felt my heart being ripped at that very moment,
My eyes opaque, I saw her for the last time in the fly of the white carriage,
She was wrapped in the white of a spider web, almost ethereal,
My three quarter heart, not haemorrhaging, post mice cut,
Like a round ginger biscuit gnawed by a thieving mice in the silence of the night,
I left the hospital in deem light brain, reaching my car in a stupor,
I got into the car and drove away pulling the hospital along with me,
For it is the witness of my hurt heart, I could not tell it all alone,

I resolve to live for my left over possessions,
Besides the sick of my heart and mind,
I had to be content with living thin inside,
The sudden departure of my brother too, brought extreme cold on me,
Shaking, I spoke with an infant breath, half hearted, closer to sympathisers,
My voice, far from being heard and perceived,
But I kept on whispering in the try of talking,

The white carriage knocked me down with an unannounced visitation,
Again, helplessly I watched as my brother is taken away in the grip of my chest,
The mean driver, wearing a white suit, living the family behind in snow,
Drove like the ride of a bird, flying higher and higher into the opaque of the sky,
Standing there amidst my brother's children and wife,
My heart ripped, hollow and light, like a hapless dry leave,
My body fell onto my knees, as my brother's body sank into the hell hole,
My wife and Friend tried to pick me up,
My legs became jelly in the crook of death,
They carried me admit the mock of birds
I woke up in the crush of mealy leaves; the fright fried my heart to silence,
Alas! I found myself in the hospital of my sister's ending
I saw them aeroplanes ferrying people passed my place to limbo,
I waved to them with a fist holding my wretched heart in it,
But when them aeroplanes kept on stealing my sibling, I hated them forever…,
The angel's smile is brighter in the snow head,
Deepening the pain to no pain but ghost living!

Niki Nkuna
16/02/12