Manthipe Moila

Jacaranda mimosifolia

You have given up your abandonment the way a boy jumping into a river gives up

his shoes. You have given up your hurt, that ancient skin; your want, that old wound.

There are moments like this where you walk the streets of Joburg with friends

or family, bare of yourself, smelling the Jacaranda mimosifolia; crushing

the fallen flowers beneath your school shoes. You do not know that this is your

way of practicing forgiveness, nor do you know that it will all be for naught:

the trees bloomed in Pretoria weeks ago, and you are smelling time already going,

a belated world of violet; one that your father will slip into and never return from.

Manthipe Moila is a poet from Johannesburg, South Africa. She holds a BA Hons. in English Literature from Rhodes University. She has been published in a few online and offline publications including Stirring, Tupelo Quarterly, Agbowó and Saranac Review. She is currently based in Seoul, South Korea.

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