Lebogang Mashile Poems

I want to write a poem
About pretty black girls
Who don't relax and lie their dreams away
Voices that curl
...

You and I
We are the keepers of dreams
We mould them into light beams
And weave them into life's seams
...

I see the wisdom of eternities
In ample thighs
Belying their presence as adornments
To the temples of my sisters
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Every child, my child is wrapped in a ribbon of rhythm
Every child, my child is wrapped in a ribbon of rhythm
Every child, my child is wrapped in a ribbon of rhythm,
...

After they've fed off of your memories
Erased dreams from your eyes
Broken the seams of sanity
...

"I dance to know who I am
When I am in motion
I move to find the rhythm
That permeates this commotion
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I knew a girl once who lived in a house made of skin
With the spine of time stretched through it
The slightest wind would make it spin
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When I am closed
Used up
You are stretched at your fullest width
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Home is a foreign land
That hurls the might of its confusion around the world
Strangers believe they know my bruises
The smallness of boxes they call eyes
...