The Up & Coming Magazine

Walking with jots in vain

Secrets kept in dismay

I swallow my pride and try not to drive myself astray

I stayed in the corner

Bit my tongue

While my voice wilted

My feelings heightened

My life shrunken.

I swallowed every smile

Erased every vow

And hid from every crowd

Confused rugs for a lie

Now I dull life out of a cry.

I swallowed my whines

When I should have whimpered

Rather than let my life simmer

I was crinkling

Like cotton

I was drowning like oil

And dripping in decoy

I should have raised my voice

And released words of choice

But I dulled life out of my vines

Hid my voice with a smile.

Drowning

Though able to swim

I am sinking into a sound

I forbid my tongue from releasing

I am a habitual skeptic

Hiding behind crowds

A paradox in question

While strained in action.

Let me not say the words at the tip of my tongue

Not to save my reputation from collapse

But to write a hole in the stars.

This was written by our contributing writer, Siwaphiwe Matha.

Image Source: Pexels, Jean Carlos