POETRY

 

My Poetry Wants Women

 

 

Kirsten Deane

University of the Western Cape, South Africa. kirstendeane14@gmail.com

 

 

My fingers have been aching and crying when I look away. They're tired.

They've been writing about the white women and their beauty, the perfections that they carry.

My paper-cut fingers want to write about the coloured women

that hang in my curls

with their legs crossed and their arms reaching across

their chests to stop the men from staring

at their breasts,

my poetry wants to bring their eyes back to meet ours.

My hands want to write about the coffee and koeksisters

that sit on our table but only on a Sunday.

About the fulfilment a coloured woman only gets from family.

I want to write about the beautiful black women that ride the taxi

with me, their voices that have more life in them than their lungs.

My hands want to write about the colourful women

I live beside and my poetry will show

us combined into a rainbow

that doesn't end.