Romeo D. Matshaba

Remember days gone by when furry dogs would freeze?
I tall tale when I said, ‘I felt heat, I just ate or I just smiled’
Now with a ragged bag and a sack, I am leaving home to chase a dream.
Abandoning you, or saving you? Only you will know.
...

I fear, I will not be enough for that world outside,
I will not measure up to that who they expect me to be, want me to be.
I fear the one I breathe… the one I see, will only see another.
I fear for these faults I have, these weaknesses… those flaws.
...

I grasp a handful of nothing and a few scraps of death.
I reminisce her sky color in eye, when two tears fell amid the rain
Lips shivered as leaf, heart wept as weak.
Ay, I was in luck to meet your gaze
...

When he overwhelmed time and slept among two distances.
With still and golden eyes he stared at heaven: temporarily she lost her guise,
But he now rests amid the painted wall and the fluidly space.
I remember him because he was my father.
...

Dear, may I tell you how my heart behaves?
At times, I’m a sagging bird dragging a tired wing,
a sad and ruined statue befallen by rain. Most valued,
lips overlook to mention, that lacking you –
...

The golden twilight ball of crystal light,
Sinking amid his or her giant rocks; is worth a million silent words.
Yet, it is nothing compared to my ladies quite eyes,
Her wavering hair, her endless laugh.
...

Let my eyes see your glory and have mercy upon my soul,
Let wise men enlighten me, angels lift me up, devils fear me and blessings shower me.
Let lawmen not put me to darkness or jailers drag me to their dungeons of doom;
Let thieves not tear my clothes or hurt my eyes or those nasty bandits slit my throat;
...

If your love has not yet forsaken me, and your goodness still lingers in all my soul;
Deliver me from these earthly woes, this undying grief...
Dear Lord, these barefooted men with rags on their rocky backs
These barefooted men with cracks in their hands.
...

Old women are lining in the streets, none of them are glad,
None of them are tired, but one is bleeding from her eyes,
Their necks are turned, backs facing south tears facing down.
One woman points, her skin is sad; with many drawings on her face.
...

I fear him through my arteries and my blood,
deeper than marrow in my bones,
wider than sea in sky.
yet I love him with all the incalculable hairs on my head,
...

The Lord, my only stronghold
no earthly flames, or hellish blaze can wound my body
no sea to render me lost in infinite blue, to drown me... or cold me
no sea monsters, or pythons can devour me
...

Darling you, if in dream and open eye; I dream of you,
If in seas apart and lips apart; I darling you.
If I leak my red and let you be,
My darling you…
...

Envision a ring in time, an endless ring of mine,
A ring ’through you distorts all shapes.
I imagine we meet, at circle dawn.
But time here, time there; we fall.
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Stars on a bloom – two stars on a rose. With,
a deepened heart beneath rose wreathed hair,
scribbling lines to make ‘em rhyme,
give me time to make you mine.
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Because wind timorous of silence, and
Light snivels for the dark,
We bear time impedes.
Half peeked colors painting the blue,
...

Asleeping rose, say we live for here and now,
and say our words to breathe the last.
O Hush my lips, halt to breathe.
romantic chronicles salute thy love.
...

There should be more, older brother said, as
He left one day, and I stayed that day.
But brother, we remember differently
As you called me single minded, as you called me feeble minded
...

Salvaged my soul from rattles, and burning candle in the sky,
How we then grew tall in now fallen land,
Remember, when we’d sit and recite never-ending dreams,
Never-ending things?
...