Thobile Masondo (19 February 1979 / Durban, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa)

The poem is about the grapevine, gossip. The writer expresses that dispicable things were said about her destroying her dignity and leading to her feeling worthless. At the end the only solution for her is death. She feels that in death her value is more in that people note positive attributes at the funeral about the deceased, but she realizes that even death does not stop people from gossiping about others as she says that the 'Vineyard lives on' and continues to destroy another victim.

My writing is based on emotions. I write about either my personal experiences or experiences others have gone through and expressed. This poem was inspired about teenage girls and their take on gossip and how this age group reacts to how people or their peers feel about them. Although young people may make silly decisions to deal with verbal attacks, this does not stop people from continuing to gossip about others.