When was the last time you felt
a visceral shudder through your chest,
much like the one you got
when you realised
the worst thing you’ve ever realised?
It starts on the left
and spreads to the nether regions like contagion
Then grips, then squeezes, then arrests
It steals the peace from your mind,
before it recoils lightly
-like a man jokingly pinching meat
from his wife’s simmering pot,
before she swats his hand away.
And they laugh like old friends.
That’s what it does,
that fear of flight,
the fear of death.
Descends on an unsuspecting January night,
then goes away just as quickly,
Driven off by the same old defense mechanism,
“I don’t have to think about this now.”
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Copyright © 2021 Tebogo Ndlovu
