LIFE\'S COLLISIONS

LIFE\'S COLLISIONS

LIFE\'S COLLISIONS

I was young once, rose-spectacled
Foolhardy, ambitious and horny for life
I wanted to consummate every thought
birth dreams bigger than self
Dreams as slippery as an eel
I found love in books with flimsy plots
a story line as thin as each page that
turned and smelt like age-old dust
and cheap perfumes of those who had
read them before.

Intoxicated
I was building castles and airplanes with
maize stalks
Before long I found myself splattered
on stony ground, dusty, bloodied
with no shoulder to lean on.

I swear on my great grandmother's
grave in Murewa
Age is such a beautiful thing
Age has taken the blindfold off
my mind's eye
Beneath the soft wrinkles
Beauty's secrets whisper
Revealing a truth of self-love as
an inspiration for others to love me back
Age has struck out the urgency
Replaced it with deliberate
Tortoise-like steps, not leaps,
in themselves contained yet a ladder
to the one dream knowing it is
just a matter of time before I step on the runway
And take off to the intended sky

Extremity the enemy-like paparazzi
Wary watches at bay
Watching my every move
Microscopic eyes ready for a slip
I say zoom in
My insides are shelled in dark blue prints
of the falls my heart and mind have suffered
Pan around, zoom in closer
You will see them scars, barely visible
The truth of where I've been.