Their world comes alive at night
tainted spirits roaming free
concealed by darkness
breathlessly stalking you and me
Think you all is quiet, all is safe
Innocence! – Let
Nighttime's denizens pick off with ease
her targets of death and disease
I apologize
I have tainted Africa
I betrayed you
Daggers entwined with gold,
Embedded with my sorrow
Laying beneath the dark
Hope i don’t sway too far
I heard a melody, something is telling me
Letting the dagger hold onto my palm and yet
Drinking my blood so the taste I won’t forget
Maybe i’m human in some other universe
A thing wearing human wearing skin, cuts and lines made a verse
Masking the wretchedness, clouding my wretched thoughts
My home: a green abyss, then was the day I was born.
Cut me and rip out my heart, please
Study it so you can tell me
That my heart is of crimson not envy
I’ll say “I’m healthy” but help me; help me
Find out how I can be human
Prick me by telling the truth and
Maybe then I could be useful
Truthful?
No, maybe if I wasn’t scared to
I’d be surrounded by petals
Delicately decorating my grave
Peaceful up until you mock me
Those flowers? They’re all that I can see
Dyed in a way so it’s all green
So instead of dying, I was painted
Again and again, verdant and tainted.
All these thoughts trapped inside my brain.
Visions, delusions, writhing in pain;
As I scream out in vain.
I keep calling your name,
Only to be met by silence again.
Why can't you hear me?
I just wanted you near me.
How can you not see?
I'm not as bad as I seem.
It just all fell apart,
Almost at the start.
As soon as I let you inside,
You tore me apart.
You've broken my heart.
It's all my fault, somehow I caused it.
Claimed you had a 'good reason', I lost it.
The words shattered my soul,
So harsh and so cold.
Made me feel so alone,
Felt like I should be gone.
You say that you're done,
I'd thought you might have been the one.
I don't know what to do now.
You said, "Just stop.", what if I don't know how?
By: Khomotso Makitla
Dear loved one, It’s me your UNREQUITED LOVER.
In hope I hoped that this day never unveil.
As your WHISPERS still roam free in brain, whispers
and hisses of broken promises.
I nearly fumbled to open my heart once more,
But I once trembled on your mountain of lies.
Stone by stone I was there but there I was not,
Piles of those stones turned into a mountain and far i was pushed.
That mountain’s shadow tinted my heart,
For my heart is dark still, and I thought I was tough like steel.
But you’ve shown how easy it is to steal, once vital organ,
And turn it into a hard and cold object.
But I watched as your mountain of lies Mounts and the colder you become.
The shoulder to cry on, turned into the shoulder that made me cry on,
Never believed in cruelty, but that was my reality.
Surely I didn’t believe that rubbles of stones can incline into this shade of,
Darkness, that blind folded me from seeing the majestic hill up front.
That why I like to say fool me once, and like ancient Artifacts you will,
Be the thing of the past. ©?
*TAINTED*
Butterfly, spread your wings to stair my womb
When everything said my life will end
Unbothered yet growing with love
Your posture like a queen, my sorrow, your Joy
Happy to see the world, while I birth you in pain
When heads popped out yours was dangling legs
Oh! My little feeble
Wonders from my praises
Detail, growth is inevitable
How my bosom missed your whispers
Promise, to live untainted
Save your sanity from all Adams
Bats of divers colours stalks like Leopard
Pounds on their prey, when life is as sweet as honey
Oh! My sainted gift
Discern the gifts From mortal beings
My Gold, I blew the chance and soiled the linen
I'm hunted, choking for breath
Fear becomes my companion
For the days, when my hidden self will bloom
This eagle's beak and sworded claws
Will pierce my heart for all to see
Oh! Arise, you mothering life
Save your womb from painful cries
Darkness surrounds me
I can no longer move
The flowers you once gave me
Now entraps me in its roots
How could kindness turn so rude
Yet I will never stop loving you
I watch as these flowers now black
Suffocate me
Wrapping around choking out my breath
Keeping from me air needed to survive
Voices whisper in my head
This is no longer a friend
Yet I cling to these roots for dear life
Wishing it wasn’t right
Tainted Blood
They lost me because I loved them enough to let them go, If you love something, set it free; if it returns, it’s yours. Or perhaps they wanted to have their cake and eat it too.
As poets, we often shy away from lines like these, Odium-filled phrases that don’t necessarily mean failure. A failed relationship doesn’t imply personal failure, But rather a problem—either created by us or our partner.
Let’s list the problems:
Lack of capital
Lack of patience
A weak man seeking rescue from a strong woman
And the list goes on, each issue a thorn in the heart. The pain fades after the first heartbreak, Yet trust and love become elusive.
I knew I would lose them—the scent of tainted blood wafted from their pores as they drew near. So, I stopped the kisses, the intimacy, and then came the unwarranted jealousy, the emotional hurt of rejection.
We see them for what they are, and sometimes, that’s enough to set us free.
Time and mind unravel
A maze of rose tainted gravel
Whispers life’s secrets
Your bare form would have the Devils' on their knees.
Your sculpted model makes my heart freeze.
As the sun sets below the fiery horizon,
The inevitable lust in me rises.
As though you were the only star
That could make me forget my scar.
The silk bedsheets haunt my thoughts,
You were the only thing my memories brought.
Morally tainted,
Shadows dance on conscience's edge,
Soul's burden unveiled.
The meal seemed amazing
Apple pie hot out of the oven was blazing
Ice cream with caramel sauce made it very pleasing
Now one more toast we are raising
The night become hair-raising
Eating something tainted
Do I get out of bed~I fainted
Date Written: 11/7/2021
5 Place
Note: Acrostic Rhyme
1. tainted
''T'' Contest, New or Old Poetry Contest Sponsored by: Constance La France
Sour ground ...
burial lots, where the worms defile
Tear moistened dirt
hardened by fretting hearts,
fearful of the pulse pendulum clock
Time moves mournfully on a crooked drop,
six-feet motion of tainted tick-tock
The skeleton key
can’t open casket thoughts
bound by
an unrepentant lock
Half-life decay of terminal haste
has an unsweetened
paper taste —
Rectangular sawdust placed in toxic space,
as gravedigger eyes spark
an undertaker gaze
A mushroom cloudy view into
the catacomb maze
Everyone must darkly go
on this nether journey;
tho’ some will choose to make
an urn-stipulated,
vain crematorium flee
Letting their ashes of demise
boast a false victory
4-24-21
Damaged my heart drips; the
floor black from blood stains
Splintered from your beating;
crippled from the pain
Quiet I beg it become;
through tears I pray it be still
For my heart you asked and it
I gave freely; whole and distilled
It was not supposed to be abused,
stepped on, and forgotten
Now you see me filled only with
malice and ask “what happened?”
For a good woman you asked;
a goddess you did receive
Not giving thought to the repercussions
when this one you deceived
In this moment I am mourning for
the heart that you've destroyed
But it will pass; and you will wish
for a heart where you’ve left a void
2018
We went to get a Christmas tree
We got it in its stand
During the night I sensed
The horrid scent of pee did land
I thought I would try one of these but of course I really don't do meter.LOL.
I also know that it should read had landed. An animal had used that tree as its marking post.
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