A Woman's Destination Poem by Sarah Mkhonza

I have been everywhere
Singing and crying
Laughing and dancing
For I love being.


Who can sing like a tourist
That goes to every concert
Listening to the sound of stars
when they pop up in the sky.

I have heard real prayers
People wishing for the unknown
Asking it to kiss their hand
Or else they will die.

Who can know when I go
If I will reach my own north
Where lights never go out
So that my mind can rest.

The south rejected me
They said my words were bad
Their ears had stoppers
Of a tradition we did not want
For time for change had come.


I have sung real songs
Not this bad use of instruments
That you hear in the sounds
Of traffic on the highway.

I have been everywhere
Inside a tea cup with leaves
Stirring them around
Like there was wind in there.

My children wondered
Where their mother was
When I scurried around
After the nest had fallen
After the rough winds
Like that of the weaver bird
And told me I would have died
If I had not chosen to leave.