MALIKA LUEEN NDLOVU
At the end of a thread, holding my breath, beading
Heartbeat
White bead
Heartbeat
We are more than our bodies
More than our frenetic minds
We live before and beyond skin
Even as our bones hold archives
Our voices, our stories transcend
One lifetime, one earthbound timeline
An irrepressible anthem in our cells
Repeating this immortal truth
Even as we are taken, liberated
From this version of living, of breath
Death of all things, all forms
As natural as the wisdom of trees
Surrendering their burdened limbs
Crashing back down to the waiting ground
Heartbeat
Red bead
Heartbeat
Here and now an unrelenting wind
Wakes us in tormenting currents
Rattling our fragile human frames
Holograms of security, superiority
Collapse, dissipate, pixelate
Exposing our mutual defencelessness
Empathy is not optional, intellectual choice
It is visceral, at the essence of our species
In the mirror of those we demonise, call other
Our delusions of separation, tropes of denial
Pierced by the growing howl, the keening
Building over decades, through centuries
Heartbeat
Green bead
Heartbeat
This we cannot unsee
The unspeakable unfolding
Even with backs turned
Eyes shut, tongues tied
Plugged into distraction
Sinking into all kinds of silences
Beneath multiple, increasing weights
The weaponry of words in our time
Yet where humility exists, honesty arrives
‘I don't know’ is the alchemical portal
Pivoting the swift strategizing, solution seeking
Towards authentic questioning, listening
Heartbeat
Black bead
Heartbeat
As this darkness widens, deepens
As our tears burn, turn into paint and ink
Sacred water finds its way to the blood
Cleansing the unforgiven, the ill-usion
Calling in the unwritten, no singular conclusion
Evidently your story is inextricably mine
Impossible to escape, amputate or erase
This age of great for-getting is coming undone
Already surfacing the inevitable re-membering
Love’s rivers, all over, meeting again at the sea