By Neelo Lentebanye I stayed up late,chasing whispers across blank pageswhile my soul begged for sleep.The journal stared back–its silence louder than my thoughts.I surrendered to the dark.Morning arrived with leheelo,the broom sweeping rhythm into the yard.The air carried the scent of wet soilfrom my mother’s blooming plants.She left for the fields with her friend,their... Continue Reading →
By Noah Vale A calling in flame and drumbeat.They gathered in silence older than bone,Around a fire that didn’t burn,But remembered.Ash and ember spoke my name,In tongues I hadn’t learned yet:YanguYanguYangu!The drums weren’t playedThey were summoned;Each beat, a footstep from the unseen.Each rhythm, a fingerprint of my past,Tapping at my chest chanting:Do you hear us... Continue Reading →
By Pearl Mokgatlhane Nobody lives there now, but it’s there that my heart always takes me.The floors used to gleam with polish.The yard neatly swept by my late grandmother.The modest vegetable garden stood proudly season after season of provision.A fire always burnt from morning to night, a tea-set always ready to welcome the parched visitorthat... Continue Reading →
By Bradley Leipego Once upon a time I was the richest manRiches bulged in my breast pocket Wealth was written on my faceRadiating as I walked the room Once upon a time I owned the moonMy very own moon I feared nothing because I had my moonNot even wraiths that lurked in the room My... Continue Reading →
By Miranda B. Joubert The mansion was deathly quiet. Elijah’s wife and children were away on vacation in Namibia. He sat next to his longtime friend, personal traditional doctor and diviner, Tshiamo. Tshiamo held an ice pack to his pulsating face. Elijah had just punched him and wasn’t going to apologise. He probably felt justified.... Continue Reading →
By PoeticPosh I am the story that the wind carries,A patchwork of dreams, scars, and memories,Not just the soil beneath my feet,But the fire that sparks when I meet my own heartbeat. I wear the colours of my ancestors’ tales,In laughter, in tears, in storms, and in sails,I am the echo of voices long gone,Yet... Continue Reading →
By Ophadile Gofhamodimo Yo, it’s the season, lights gleam on the streets,But some of us are walking with no shoes on our feet.While the world’s unwrapping, we be unwrapping dreams,Painting skies of hope where the hopelessness gleams. This ain’t about the gifts that you find under trees,It’s the strength of our roots, yeah, it’s family... Continue Reading →
By Mirrors When we were young, we were taught to suppress,as if truth itself was noisy and too heavy for air.They called it selfish, dramatic, a messour needs folded into silence into unspoken prayers. But as we mature, we reclaim what was lostthe right to speak from the core, not hide in the dark.Silence breeds... Continue Reading →
By Teedzani Thapelo i am the silent part of the machineforgotten gear in the belly of its steel hearteach day a copy of yesterday’s grey,i am facelesslost between the minutes clocked in.but last night in the static hum of the factory floori dreamed of unemployment like a field of wildflowerswhere the air smelled of freedom... Continue Reading →
By Noah Vale The women I love I could never writePoems aboutThe words would slip through my fingers,Spilled ink drying before meaning couldForm.But whiskey, painkillers, and cigarettesI could lead forums about,Speak in tongues of smoke and burn,Turn my wounds into well-crafted sentences. They listen when I talk about the bottle’sComfort,The numbing lull of little white... Continue Reading →
Petlwana Journal of Creative Literature and the Arts 