In: Anthology

LIKE BREEZES. SOMEWHERE – Simon Ng’uni

somewhere. somewhere. 
on the other side/ making its way to you 
making its way across the night’s thickening plot

somewhere/ somewhere/ on this same spot, someone is looking up. 
to someone, somewhere right this moment, 
the distance means nothing, means everything if you mind it, 
means nothing. somewhere, somewhere 
darkness looms, assailing the night

a face is smiling and someone is laughing.
someone is dying. someone is being born 
somewhere, somewhere a light leads out of a tunnel

the earth is spinning, the moon contends a greed 
                                    which flatters to stars 
                                    all that the sun would claim

somewhere/ somewhere a quake pulls off the root 
to grow a garden from the little seeds of your heart

somewhere
somewhere. 

winds are glazing over/ discovering the intent of each sprout 
and somewhere, time carries on moving as always 

somewhere/ somewhere. a tree takes to anchor, 
roots push through death and stretch towards heaven, 
with a call to life somewhere. somewhere.
despite itself, a grain knows that the light calls to it 

that somewhere, a stone is rolled away 
the seas of earth part with their red awnings across the sky
/somewhere. somewhere a tree stands by the water 
& time opens to the fruit of said labor – only somewhere 

draught breathes like wind 
juggernaut. silent. calm. tousling the breast 
for something tried and tested 
 – a breeze. coos in the shade beneath a strap of eucalyptus. 

this quiet strength, 
it will not wither – nor will its leaf


Simon Ng’uni is a 27-year-old Zambian writer. He studies Computer Science at Copperbelt University. Simon’s writing has appeared in the Writer’s Space Africa Magazine and Poetic Africa Quarterly Magazine.

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