Don’t get me wrong
From this vantage point
I would believe it too
But all the men in the room are holding their breath
And I get the feeling its showing
And he may not have intended too
But his skin has gone rather blue
I didn’t need to study the tale tell signs
I would have been lonely too
And if society was built different
This could have been a scene in reverse
Who’s to say I wouldn’t want pardon then
Anyway my uncles say it’s not that he’s a liar
It’s not like that at all
He knew her before the marriage so…
Had I been raised softer
I would be more forgiving
Don’t get me wrong
I know he loves me
So what if sometimes he makes me cry
What is a good man anyway
Children deserve fathers in the home
And had we been born in a different time
These types of things would be common
Besides who has not suffered in love
No one is special
Don’t get me wrong
I appreciate my aunt’s sympathy
And when they’re not sneering at me
For not taking better care of him
Some of the advice sounds sincere
Besides I’m only staying because
He’s not a liar
He just doesn’t know the truth.
Kina Indongo is a communications professional. Her first poems were published by her alma mater the University of Namibia in a poetry anthology titled My Heart In Your Hands: Poems From Namibia (UNAM Press, 2020). Her short story “Montell Fish” appears in the March, 2023 edition of Isele Magazine. In 2022 she was a fellow of the Narrating Namibia, Narrating Africa Doek Emerging Writers Program.