Coffee with you

The dark, steamy substance
of our conversation
is addictive --
garbled gossip,
judicious jokes, and
insidious insights.

The lacy tops of
cappuccino coffees --
our mutual advices --
frothy
and
full of air.

Left too long --
exposed to the elements --
the ingredients
of our togetherness
evolve and evaporate
into a state of stained dehydration.

A Sudden Sadness

I have this vision of you walking alone,
down over-polished, antiseptic tiles
in an airport corridor, receding
with every step you take away from me.

Your brave back suddenly
seems so
manly, square
and straight, so big --

The arguments and fights,
small silences and slights,
that have come and gone
thud dully, inconsequential.

The last thing I see
as you turn the corner
is the quietly accusing star
of your full-to-bursting backpack.

Strangers

good-looking cosmopolitan couple
on an evening out --

to the outside world
they could
easily
be mistaken
for real.
so far, no matter how close.

he is all
fluidity, restless
oceanic change,
reliable only
in unreliability
& taking
what he can get
when he can get it.

she is red welts,
black-purple bruises,
internal haemorrhaging,
hard, jagged lines &
list-making;
colour upon colour in pretty
patterns, despite herself, or
because of herself.

to the outside world
they could
easily
be mistaken
for real.

so far, no matter how close.

strangers.

you & me.

^

Biography

I am of Irish descent. Was born in Mutare, Zimbabwe in August 1974. Moved to Malawi in 1975 where my family lived until I was fourteen. We moved to Pietermaritzburg, South Africa at the end of 1988 where I finished my schooling and went to business college. I am currently working as a legal secretary, but would like to become a full-time freelance writer/poet eventually. I have had poetry published in "Carapace", "Botsotso", "Sun Belly Press", "Pagan Africa", "Fidelities" and "Newsart" - all South African magazines and poetry journals - within the space of the last couple of years. I am currently working on my first anthology entitled "Fireflies & Blazing Stars". The poetry contained in the manuscript is a personal exploration of the human condition, of what it means to be a woman in today's society particularly pertaining to life in South Africa, and of the relationships that exist between both the seen and unseen aspects of the natural world.