She said.........

She said,

"They look at my thighs as if they had faces of their own, as if they don't have daughters of their own.

Their wives look at my thighs as if they were demons of their own, pronouncing curses not even the son of man could undo. I do what I have to, exposed thighs for men with low grins & deep pockets. You see this coin is silver as Juda's thirty."

She wears her brown skin like a shade of night, mans the streets like a lantern of sorts, playing mother to the lost souls as night watches on. Out of the thick they come to pick fire flies in her garden, maybe recandle the waned halos & fashion the empty hallways of their beings. They come to seek that which lulls the tempest seas within. She has learnt that the night is not to be feared if anything she is a sister clad in melanin. What is to be feared are men with hollow hearts and shrivelled consciences.

We are all distant relatives.

Facades weigh a ton, feigned smiles threaten to tear at the seams.

Their eyes play god & leave me seared in places that will take lifetimes to heal.

She said

"Do you know how desperate you have to be, how much courage it takes to let the hyenas nibble away the best of you? To have your soul stained by the drool they leave behind, the horid stench that keeps the acts alive behind closed eyes?"

She said

"Would you trade paths with me? I would gladly let you lantern the night and feed the hyenas. While I put your demons to sleep."

Tears rolled down her face smearing her make up, fleeting facades eroding the little sanctuary she had left as if she were not naked enough.

They roll down, more as a reflex, reminiscent of the child she never was, rather than weeping & seeking comfort. She knows perfectly well in these parts of the world tears wash away no sorrows, so she wears her thighs low, back to work.

She said

"I did not choose to play candle in the night. The lots were cast in the stars and here we are . So the next time you choose to play god looking down on me, remember, you could never get into character to feed the hyenas but I could easily lay your demons to sleep."

¬nashe chokureva.