GOOD POEM-HOPING STILL

 Under the thick layers of makeup, beneath the beautiful weave and elegant outfits… are the secrets a woman harbors that evoke nightmares only she herself knows

Her feet sway without rhythm

And stomp in time to a beat less cadency

As she sings a tuneless song

Which echoes the dirge in her heart

Her ears are filled with the loud sounds of a deafening quiet

And with the ear popping loudness of a soft whisper

All that she hears is the drumbeat in her chest

And all she feels is the heaviness in her breast

Can somebody then save her from herself?

The toothless beast that bares its fangs

In preparation for attack

Layer after layer she puts on

Squinting her eyes in the mirror under the bitter glaze of a fluorescent

To make sure she has the right shade on

And hopes that maybe just maybe she can now hide the ugly scars under a brighter color

She dances under the smoky thunder of a heavy scent

And prays that now she can hide the stink of her dreams rotting flesh in a burst of sweet odor

Religiously she fastens the clasps on her six inches,

Stands tall in her new found height

And gains strength from looking down at all those she towers over

Anxiously she sews herself a headdress

And hopes to weave her shame in the borrowed mane that is now her hair do

Maybe just maybe she hopes again

Through this reinvention that walks away from the bureau

She too can walk away from her prisons

Start all over and banish the pasts’ horrors

Begin afresh and today write out her life’s chapters….

BY TANYARADZWA VANADIS17 MASAIRE