HIRAETH, SOL

I’ve always loved the seaside view

I like to think

these wounds that time has cauterised,

reveal, in perfect preservation

evidence

of lives that have passed through you.

But the rubble

the skin and entrails cast aside, to rot,

revive those relic, early memories

unsnaring the hems of those

whose dwelling place or grave you were installed astride.

Your martyrdom has somehow cut them loose.

I imagine her

alive, untombed

Gutting a fish among your brutalist remains.

Her knife gliding through flesh

to expose the viscera, intact.

Its soft eyes stare out

Reflecting in their wet veneer the grey above

And beneath—a defiance of emptiness

In the flecks of colour in their gaze

And in your bared heart.

You, the youngest of our ruins. 

Art by Jennifer van der Merwe

Photography by Jade Mkparu

(1) Comment

  1. Fidelis O. Mkparu says:

    Purely soulful

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