outside
By Thabile Makue
my mother undresses
by accident
she pours herself out
and i catch her
with my mouth
down the desert hallway
in my throat
she finds a body
i borrowed once
by accident
i have my mother
in my lungs
my grandfather breaks
out of his torso
onto the floor
my grandmother trips
over him
she bleeds out
into my mother's ear
my mother has her mother
in her windpipe
a magician
she smokes herself
into a potion
my mother has drunk
in her nose
i am sorry i am hungover
my mother's body
is intoxicated
i stumble out in my sleep
and you tuck me back in
by accident
you undress me
and all the alone
falls out
Copyright Credit: Thabile Makue, "outside" from ‘mamaseko. Copyright © 2020 by Thabile Makue. Reprinted by permission of University of Nebraska Press.
Source: 'mamaseko (University of Nebraska Press, 2020)