You Are Really Safe Poem by Thabani Khumalo

Your face was lurid, your true beauty was the fairest of all to behold.
I should have let you run with me to the finish line -
running abreast to savor the covert admiration of the boys and the girls in the view,
you were strong and looked slick like a racing stallion,
and you were vicious like a wild dog in a survival fight mode.
Fate is taking us apart now - everyday piece by piece
and its air is wilting down your lovely flower garden of old makers.
I weep alone in the dark
because the world knows that men don't cry.

You took a bigger piece of my heart
and it's scary that you took a healthy piece:
where I am, all my body is ill - still.
So I gave it away deliberately in this souvenir
for you to hold onto and cherish our moment together
when you were right in between my arms
and I felt like a soldier having to stand for a special cause,
so I stood up and defended your body from the many violent reigns -
I stood against the bodies of a lot of vindictive men.

I go back to that touch and the way it felt:
the same spell I have embedded on this souvenir of my fashioning -
a guilt of felony by verdict of the law,
a holy thing by virtue of all physical rate.
Feel my presence always when you use this memorable gift
and know that where I am I feel the same.
I have cleared enough space in it for you to be alone,
for when you are alone, I am there by the piece of my heart you seized.
You fit the look of the gift I have created,
look at it and rate your precious beauty in the entire world.

Do not play heavy rock - infact, play no music
but listen to the sweet poetic melodies singing in the silence.
Fight by your spirit and direct our bodies to meet again in this world,
for when you are alone with me, you are really safe.