South Africa: My walls witnessed my murder

by Zani Kutumela

Home alone within the high walls I built to confine myself,

Today they detain me and shield my perpetrator as he executes his plan and devour me,

Most pleased to see him again, my walls lower their guard and salute him into my safety,

For he is known to them as my neighbour, my brother and my lover.

Gullibly, my walls resume their duties and stand proud, locking the world out.

They leave me shut in with a man who has sold his soul to darkness.

They misinterpret my desperate call for help as bawdy bellows and roars of passion,

For they have heard these rackets of intimacy from him and I before.

My lover, who has entered my safety to slay me,

Stands before me with eyes that are ignited like blazing coal.

He stammers as he accuses me, he tortures himself with semi-truths,

Thundering up his anger, throttling me.

The ambience in the room alters for me as I grey out.

I notice how his lips quiver with rage as he cusses my deaf ears;

He is unaware that he is killing me, he supposes that I will survive his fists again.

My spine breaks and gravity breaks his grip and my body collapses to the ground – broken.

Startled, he weeps, pacing vigorously around my body,

My walls detain him, the truth detains him, and his conscience accuses him.

He begs his mind to lose its stronghold over his moral consciousness and to stop repeating the truth,

But it is all finished for both him and me now.

He is jailed by the anchor of the strong walls I built to confine me but which are now my mausoleum

Zani Kutumela is a writer am a writer who has published a poetry book titled Rerouting which  features work around the themes Africa my Homeland, Gender based violence, Social immortality, Racism.She holds  a BA Degree in linguistic . This poem is written in her personal capacity .