Women who sleep through daytime and other poems

Athambile Masola

IINTOMBI EZILALA EMINI

Kukho iintombi ezingqengqa emini
Ziyolelwa kukuphunga ubuthongo zizolile.

Azingxami.

Ezi zintombi ezingavuki neentaka
Zivuka xa kuvuma umzimba

Ziyazimamela.

IYEZA

Amanzi
Ukuphuma kwelanga
Ukuphunga
Ukubonwa ngulowo ukuthandayo
Isifuba negxalaba elingagungqiyo
Umculo othuthuzelayo
Ukugcakamela ilanga

IZITHUNYWA ZEMVULA

Ukhe uwabukele amafu?
Ngamanye amaxesha athule… cwaka.
Ngamanye amaxesha avuthuze njengomsindo

                Bendiwabukele esuka eNtshona ethunywa
                                                            eMpuma.
                Nangona efukame imvula khange azixheshe.
                Ndinento ethi ade afike
                                                            apho ebesinge khona.

     Yana imvula
     Yawenza umsebenzi wokuphelisa imbalela.
     Yapholisa umhlaba
     Yaphilisa.

     Abo bade bayifumana loo mvula
     Abakubonanga ukuchwechwa kwala mafu
     Kodwa ade afika
                                    apho ebethunywe khona.

WOMEN WHO SLEEP THROUGH DAYTIME

There are women who slumber easily
through daytime
Leisurely, slowly, sipping on sleep.

Unhurried.

These women who do not stir with the waking birds
Awake to the rhythm of their bodies.

In repose, they edify themselves

REMEDY

Bodies of water
Sun rising
Tea sipping
To be beheld by the one who loves you.
Heart and shoulder that do not waver
Quiet sounds
Sun soaking

EMISSARIES OF THE RAIN

Do you ever watch the clouds?
At times they are quiet… still.
At times they shake violently.

                I have watched them moving from West
                                                            to East
                Although pregnant with rain they did not hurry.
                 A feeling tells me they arrived
                                                                 Where they were headed.

     The rain poured
     The rain fulfilled its purpose of ending drought
     Mending the earth
     Healing.

      Those who received the rain
      Did not witness the quiet movement of these clouds
      But they arrived
                                    Where they were meant to be.

Dr Athambile Masola received her PhD from Rhodes University. Her dissertation was an exploration of black women’s life writing with a particular focus on Noni Jabavu and Sisonke Msimang’s memoirs. Her primary research focuses on black women’s life writing and historiography. Her research is also informed by the early 20th century newspaper archive in South Africa (particularly written in isiXhosa). She is primarily concerned with the nature of erasure and the ways in which multiple forms of reading a variety of texts can inform archival research.