Poetic Justice

I known this woman for about 8 months and never did it cross my mind that she writes perfectly like the way ink dries on paper. Enjoy the poetic motion.

I Am A River
by Marcia Nonkululeko Tladi (South Africa)

I am a river

Mine is the nature of a river
My roots are in the high mountains
My destination the wide open seas
I am born of a natural spring
Without perversion or malice
They call it naivety, I will learn
Morning suns greet me and
I see the 15 moons of Uranus
Go over and under the Earth
Like lights on a Ferris wheel *
Yet my vision is two-dimensional
And innocent perceptions
Of a flat and square world, I acquire
Everyday I learn to flow -
Not fluently at first
Returning to my beginnings every nightfall
Long-anticipating the rains that will be my rite of passage

Mine is the nature of a river
When the summer rains pour profusely
I will swell at the breasts
I will break my banks in joyous ululations
While I make my descent
In fast furious currents from majestic hills
Taking with me every lesson in sight
Good or Forsaken
For I do not discriminate between sand, gravel or soil
And only later will I learn clear distinctions
Between good and evil

Mine is the nature of a river
I hail from dizzy heights and think myself infallible
But I soon learn that not all waters will put out the fire
And that not every course run yields results desired
And that my speed cannot be solely determined by my own will
So when the mountain softens its slope
I learn a gentler flow
When the route forks
I learn to listen for dangers ahead
For my sight is but of two dimensions yet
And I still harbour no bias to my lessons;
I barely discriminate between sand and soil

Mine is the nature of a river
As lessons learnt yield wisdom
My channels getting wider
I near my destination
And I question and I question
Why I have learnt to sift through the soils
If my journey should end so abruptly
Surely these lessons I should have learnt at the mountaintop
No answers forthcoming,
I let the anger go with all the silt I carry
And make a free fall into the sea

I am a river
One of many in the sea
Tomorrow I make a glorious ascent
To the blue skies above
I shall look down upon the earth and
Learn of horizons that make it round
And learn why the waters don’t spill out of the seas
And when I have my three-dimensional sight
I will explode in uncontainable jubilation
Onto the earth its mountains its soil
I will taste all that I wish of natural splendour
And I will fill rivers on mountains
And laugh secretly
As they make their eventful fall to their destination
For nature does have a sense of humour

I am a river
Pure of nature
Immortal and Pure

*** end ***
The © Copyright to this poem is owned by the author.


Temptation
by Marcia Nonkululeko Tladi (South Africa)

It nibbles at my ear lobes
And whispers sweet nothings
To the tone of promises
Its tact is composed
Nothing hurried about it
Take your time
It seems to say
Take your time but
Show some urgency
It may not be there forever
You know
Someone else will take it
It says to me

It pacifies my lips
Soft sucking
Never fulsome
Tell me when you want me stop
It says to me
But I’m uncertain
Though not far at all from
Giving in
To the lushness
Of its touch
Voluptuously sensual
In its strokes

I lie in bed with temptation
Uncomfortably close to it
This time
My inhibitions fast escaping me
Leaving me alone
With this devil of a feeling
That lures me so cleverly
In the darkness
Further into the dark

It lures me so cleverly
Until someone hits the light switch

*** end ***
The © Copyright to this poem is owned by the author.