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Friday 10 July 2020

For Women Returning From Love


 

Catherine Magodo Mutukwa

 

 For Women Returning From LOVE As If It Were A Long War...

  

She said

You do not understand

the kind of devastation that echoes through the body of a woman who has been shattered after exploding  and is in the process of disintegrating within herself...

And

The burden of carrying a tired soul which seems permanently heavy

Riddled with holes from fiery bullets

Of untold betrayal and hardened hate

Inflicted by an assault-rifle of a secret

War ruthlessly triggered by a MAN born of a WOMAN,

Because

I am a WOMAN born of a WOMAN

I thought if I spoke less

I thought if I folded myself more

Enough to fit into his mound,

He would stop...

But

He tore me off from his flesh as if I were a dead limb slowing him down serving no purpose

For many nights, I lay still in the cold

Trenches of my mind thinking the world had ended and began without me so that I could survive a barrage

Of hurtful words hailed my way before boring through to my core...

 

I said

 Come...

Let me gather you in my arms

Let the gentleness of my words embrace you as you inhale and then

Exhale

Allow the sound of my writing to soothe where it is hurting

Ahh! You want to die for a man who

Leaves you drowning in sorrow while

He unapologetically pursues a new

Fling?

It is a lie that you will not break if you

Keep bending backwards for a man who takes you for granted

You've been taught to hide your emotions behind silence and this they

said is 'womanly'

What barbarism!

To the woman who has fought long and hard and is tired now...

to the woman who has loved and lost,

A hero’s welcome awaits you!

We will understand when you begin to

unwrap stories of the conflict that left

you torn,

We will be patient while you sew the holes in your soul so you can grow a

thick skin to avoid being hurt again

by a man who destroys your peace and leaves you wondering why you aren't enough....

  

© Catherine Magodo-Mutukwa – is an award-winning Zimbabwean poet based in South Africa. There is more on her Facebook page (Catherine Magodo-Mutukwa Poet/Author).

 




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