You spent a great portion of your life
Trying to fix it,
That thing inside.
Fighting it to be who you thought
Everyone needed it to be.
Wishing it would die.
Oh, how you bent yourself
To fit their mould,
Chipped away at yourself,
Made yourself small.
Broke yourself in half,
Dying to survive.
Had to be everything to everybody,
Oh, how you tried.
You carved yourself away,
Became the extension of their mind
Erased who you truly are.
Oh, what a violent crime.
Oh, how exhausting,
What a painful mess,
A mutilation,
A slow death.
But today,
We sing a new song,
A mutiny,
Arise!
It’s sound reminiscent
Echoing the greatest revolutions of our time.
What an honour to hear it,
Breathe it,
Feel it,
Be it.
This song
Is fire blazing in your belly.
Its seed erupted from your volcanic heart,
Sprouted,
Blossomed,
Bloomed.
This song
Is the stubborn beating of your heart,
Its drum
Tirelessly thumping,
As if to say:
“I refuse to die
There was never
Anything to fix
Only to live
And let live
Be who you are
No more hiding,
Love”
Each beat
a testament
To the rich history
Of your bloodline.
Each beat
A step your ancestors took
To explore the vast,
great lands across time.
Each beat
A measure of gratitude
For the sacrifices made,
They did not die in vain.
This song is your blood,
it is your life,
Strong bonds of molecules
Chained together,
Dancing in the lumen of your veins.
The filling within the hollow
An endless song,
An endless dance.
Charmaine //Gamxamûs is a Namibian poet and writer with a BSc in Nuclear Medicine Technology from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in Cape Town. She placed second in the Goethe-Institut Namibia’s’ short story competition, In Times of Pandemic, for her story, “Dehisce”. Charmaine is a lover of language, expression, and storytelling through poetry, literature, and music and is a member of the 2022-2023 Doek Collective. She is a fellow of the Narrating Namibia, Narrating Africa Doek Emerging Writers Program. Charmaine published a children’s book in the inaugural Book Sprint Namibia titled, Myra’s Friends.