Put It To Rest

all over the place . . . then poof! . . . gone — Mom was adored by everyone who knew her and it could feel a little invisible to be standing in her shadow. Only belatedly, I see how self-absorbed she was. As a kid, she had frequent ear infections. One of her favorite family stories was telling how her dad got up…

A moment of racism — Window rolled down, hot fierce breeze — seductive whisper of his blonde wife brushing his black cheek, tangle of her fingers in his tight curly hair. Radio off, he’s entranced by rattle and grind of his used car on gravel backroads, echo of the Delta blues. Dusk, his wife falls…

Probably not over there, either. — Today I feel a kind of flux through mind and body — not ill, not well, not lightheaded, not stable. A feeling of impending illness without certainty of becoming sick. Not quite a low ebb, yet nearly. Another hallmark of aging? a symptom of some species of spiritual or metaphysical awakening…

I had no idea how much pain I was in. — The hits continued to come With each devastating blow delivered The impacts reverberated deeper Permanently imprinting themselves on my psyche Like toxic seawater in my lungs And starving me of precious oxygen Suffocating the pleasures of life from me My time here is borrowed Like floating in a dark and unknown…

a poem — I know loneliness well I know her dark secrets her longing her aching I know her dreary shape her heavy sighs her slumped shoulders her dusty scent her stale taste she wraps herself around me like an unwanted blanket she’s hard and gloomy not cozy or comfortable I know loneliness…

a poem by Ndaba Sibanda — Tshepo denied that he was no longer living a healthy, balanced life, yet he was in a bond that was unhealthy. For mental health incorporates one`s psychological social and emotional being. Mental health is crucial. Mental health impacted the way he felt and behaved. …