The Line Poem by Niki Nicholas Nkuna

Loving your flesh and soul is the limit of my contract to you,
Your destination is out of my contract,
My contract to you, is to see you becoming mature enough,
To drive your own vehicle,
That carries you in your hands,
I will wave to it in tears of joy or tears of sorrow,

Loving your flesh and soul is the limit of my contract to you,
I want to see you stand up,
Walk and talk, inside my boundary,
I want to see you work outside my boundary,
I do not want to touch you anymore,
I want to smell you only,
To know that you are a free man at last,
That your vehicle is carrying you in your hands,
Steered by your eyes and brain,

My distance from you is no longer a concern for me,
‘Cause the nest is no longer there,
We both abundant it because the purpose has ended,

If I cared about the distance between us,
I would throw you a line,
That will, unfortunately equal the length of your freedom,
The ends of which would be tied to both our necks,

Your overindulgence to freedom tightens the noose and suffocates me,
All your mistakes and mishaps are free shares that I do not want,
And can't sell either,
The dividends stink in tandem with the magnitude of your overindulgence in freedom,
My success is curtailed by your exploits,
You worry about my death on the other side of the line,
My existence determines the extent to which you can enjoy your freedom,
I live for you while you live for yourself,

Now I carry the burden of living outside myself,
Besides I choose to extend the contract, my contract to you,
Uncompelled, I extended it by a line and a conditional noose,
Now I feel the pain, to cut the line by hand or death,
Because you will still be dancing to the record when it would have stopped,
A short and a long time ago,
You need to immediately come to your presence,
Before you are branded a vagabond out of a street kid kraal,

11 February 2012 niki