Poem
Kelwyn Sole
I NEVER MEANT TO CROSS THE RIVER
I NEVER MEANT TO CROSS THE RIVER
I NEVER MEANT TO CROSS THE RIVER
Who is weeping bereft inside our yard?O mother! Why can’t you hear from me the endless rustling in my heart?
Yes I went with him to the river. Mother, I went along
but I never meant to cross the river.
You told me he had cattle. You told me his mother was your friend. Yet I found his smile a tricking, lazy thing that crawled across his lips.
His face is not a sun to rise each day above my sleeping. His hands were two chickens pecking at the hard seed on my breasts. I told him to leave my mouth alone.
He said he had a condom. He said
O mother: I never meant to cross the river.
I said I want to go back home. I tried. My feet disobeyed me on wet pebbles. Mother, I tried to run.
Mother, help me. I am sore between my legs; I am sore all the way deep to my heart.
I try to tell you this and try to tell my aunts. Why will nobody hear me? Why do your gazes turn away?
My aunts shout: it’s all your fault: none of this can be our business.
Mother, I beg of you.
I told him no: I never meant to cross the river.
© 2006, Kelwyn Sole
From: Land Dreaming
Publisher: UKZN Press, Pietermaritzburg
From: Land Dreaming
Publisher: UKZN Press, Pietermaritzburg
Poems
Poems of Kelwyn Sole
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I NEVER MEANT TO CROSS THE RIVER
Who is weeping bereft inside our yard?O mother! Why can’t you hear from me the endless rustling in my heart?
Yes I went with him to the river. Mother, I went along
but I never meant to cross the river.
You told me he had cattle. You told me his mother was your friend. Yet I found his smile a tricking, lazy thing that crawled across his lips.
His face is not a sun to rise each day above my sleeping. His hands were two chickens pecking at the hard seed on my breasts. I told him to leave my mouth alone.
He said he had a condom. He said
O mother: I never meant to cross the river.
I said I want to go back home. I tried. My feet disobeyed me on wet pebbles. Mother, I tried to run.
Mother, help me. I am sore between my legs; I am sore all the way deep to my heart.
I try to tell you this and try to tell my aunts. Why will nobody hear me? Why do your gazes turn away?
My aunts shout: it’s all your fault: none of this can be our business.
Mother, I beg of you.
I told him no: I never meant to cross the river.
From: Land Dreaming
I NEVER MEANT TO CROSS THE RIVER
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