Like Elephants - Gaamangwe Mogami

Before the sad years made homes in our bones,
And our blood turned into riots,
We hang our swelling breasts in the branches of mamma’s¹ morala tree,
And we sang old gospels to the humans sleeping thick in our ribs,
Yet to be born.

Seasons - Nametso Dorothy Phonchi

Sunshine, sunset
Coffees and milk shakes
Sneezing, weeping,
Candy flaws and sweet bananas,

Beautiful Tears - Nametso Dorothy Phonchi

African tears are beautiful,
We were born crying before we knew time,
Our tears are beautiful like sun rays
like the moon and the stars,

Kids Play Outside and I Write Kaiju Dreams - Tawanda Mulalu

Neon Genesis Evangelion usually posits three best girls, Rei, Asuka, and
Misato (who isn’t a girl because she drinks a cold beer after a hot shower

Batswana Land - Leetile Disang Raditladi

My heart is in the land of the Batswana 

To hunt steenbok and duiker; 

My heart is not really in the Western land, 

It is far away in the bushes.

Skin lights - Louisa April

The street lights wink at me

their dim glow barely

illuminates my silhouette

my faulty being

my black skindedness

Death - Leetile Disang Raditladi

When I heard that he is dead I was shocked,

My marrow melted, I dropped a tear,

The earth darkened, it rotated,

My eye shone like a star,

After History - Tawanda Mulalu

Has anyone managed to make a world.

After race, we turn to genetics, return

after to the archives for new history. Who

then determines when we’re from. Roots,

Ovaria - Tjawangwa Dema

i

When midnight comes

I find I have been away too long

Blowing my insides upside down

The Rank - Thato Angela Chuma

The city pours itself here;
within the damp smell of roasting maize,
sweat,
and the snores of taxis and combis
travelling on half-dressed roads.

Pinocchio - Leungo Frank

I used to be just like Pinocchio
I wanted to be real
To feel things
Feel joy
Feel pain

Winter Days - Nametso Dorothy Phonchi

I know it will spring someday
but!
I want to dance joyfully in these moments
of impatient suns and scarce rainbows

Before the sun comes up - Katlego K Kol-Kes

Before the sun comes up:
When the eyes of those
who creep around in day, alight,
yet dance with tender
taps and bats.

Manly Canvas - Louisa April

He smells like dead butterflies.