Portrait of copying with a new beginning | Choolwe Lubaya

ISSUE 7 | JULY 2023 | TRANSITION ISSUE

It never leaped

in your mind that

earth will devour

your husband

two days after

your wedding night.

Claimed by his car

on his way to work,

he left you

with a daughter.

You do not know how

to cope with this new incense

of loneliness—

the kind that robes your joints.

You tattoo

a sprouting flower

on your arm:

it helps shoo off

thoughts of your neck

dangling down a rope.

You feel his

presence for a second,

and you wish the

phantom feeling could

have stayed

a little longer.

You hold your daughter

tight;

a moment that teaches you how

to tear grief

into tiny shreds.

Choolwe Lubaya

Choolwe Lubaya is a poet from Zambia. He writes and reads when not held up by life’s demands.

Photo by Karim MANJRA on Unsplash