WALKING Poem by Mxolisi Nyezwa

i keep still. in my shirt and in my element
i feel the vein's tremor, the heart's pulse,
the weed through the skull, through a piece of air
around my skull.

i see the unstable dark sea, furious
and on my back, my spine, the vertebral sky.
i look the cold stranger in the eye,
the looming humour, earth's forgotten smiles.

i walk the length in an unbending street.
i knock down a bird's wing. i see a universe
speeding down a broken sky. i don't stop.
i see men circling towards an unmoving crowd.