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 Apr 2014 Zanele Tlali
TR Takoda
I am a disappointment to my mother.
I don’t call when I’ll be coming home late. My room is wreck. I’m not in school, and I work two dead end jobs at places that don’t matter one iota to anyone in my family.
I curse. I smoke. I drink.
I’m a foul mouthed little child that can’t lose weight and sleeps around and never does what she’s told.
I’m a disappointment to my mother,
Despite the years of good behaviour. The good grades, the chaste life, the driven nature that took me half way around the world just to see if I could do it.
I stand in front of her today, still 6 inches shorter. Still rounder, still brunette. Still foul mouthed and still rebellious.
I still hug her tightly as if she’s all I’ve ever had. As if she is the only stability I’ve ever known. As if all those boyfriends who claimed they’d never leave either of us, as if all of those friends she had that I grew to love, and the pets we abandoned, and the apartments we called home, as if all of those things never mattered, or shaped me to be the distrustful little being I am today.
I still look at her like she’s all I have left. I never talk to her about stuff like that because I know it will only make her mad. Her hormonal short temper and her distrust of my judgement. I know I’m young, Mom, that’s why you should let me make my mistakes now, instead of in ten years when I’m married with children and never got to taste what being wrong in every way felt like.
I’m a disappointment to my mother. I want to have bad times. And hard times. I want to be knocked on my *** by life and barely able to get back up. She doesn’t get it.
She never will. I love her. With all that I am I will always love her but that trust that was once only reserved the only person who never left me, never deserted me and never gave up on me, that trust needs to be placed in me.
I am a disappointment to my mother because I grew up, and now I need to be a disappointment to me.
The past was brutal
Failed relationships countless times
Failed attempts at ending my life
Mother who abandoned me
I mean who the hell does that ****
She wasn't meant to be a mother

The present is just as worst
Distant relationships with the closest of family
Resentment for everybody who ever told me ******* cliches
Maturing too fast that it's unpleasant and unbearable
No one can understand me anymore
The sad part is that a future is almost unlikely

The future still unclear
I don't think I can salvage one
But I made the plans to go far
And I will take each step with a delicate caution
Till that one step that sends me to oblivion
Everything is just a blur

The past, the present, the future
What each and any holds for me
Is still quite unknown
And there is nobody to guide me anymore
Its all my fault because I pushed them all away
So whatever may happens I deserve it
Even if that may be more misery or death
The scars from decades
Of battling depression
Wars with myself
For the littlest things
But this New Year
I still haven't found
Anything to believe in
There is no hope for me
For there are no more
Words left to say
This book of life
I have been writing
Finally ends
2013
Almost 17 years
And it finally ends
Did I make myself
Suffer this long
Or was it
The constant knowledge
Of a mother
Who abandoned me so young
The constant reminder
From a father
Only home for the weekends
The constant memory
Of a love
That would of never worked
The constant flashbacks
Of times that never happened
Im sick of the constant "what if's"
Im ready to let go
But not the way
So many people want
2013
And its finally over
This story has an ending
Sure it might not be happy
But its an ending
Good enough for me
 Apr 2014 Zanele Tlali
Samantha
My mother gave birth to a carcass
A corpse who
Ages and grows
But does not breathe
Because the dead can't breathe

I am rotting from the inside out
First my heart will go
It will blacken and crust over
Become the stone that sits in my belly
And pulls me under
Then my tongue and teeth
They will fall out
And fill bathtubs
Blood will come trickling after
Then finally
My lungs will collapse
Like a crystal chandelier
In an abandoned opera house

I will cradle the broken pieces of myself
And I will cry
Because only my eyes seem to work
I will open my mouth
And try to breathe
And only dust will escape me
You abandoned me at 13 months old
You didn't seek enough help
You didn't even try hard enough
To even be considered my mother
Through the hatred
Through the anger
Through the pain
Through it all I still say thank you
For making me a better poet
For making me the man I am today
And I love one girl
Her name is Sakota
Sure I can't date her or anything
But my heart lies with her
And you have made me something
No one else could ever hope to make me
And that is a God
Because people know who the hell I am
And I have touched several lives
Made a few know they aren't alone
So through it all I still say thank you
A poem for my biological mother Tammy Lynn Braynard
 Apr 2014 Zanele Tlali
-
we have infinite potential lives
i can almost see how my life would play out with her
we would decide to hang out and watch mindless tv
shifting closer and closer to each other, side-eyeing when the other isn't watching; but we're both secretly watching each other instead of the show
i don't know how i'd bring it up that i'm into her, or even remotely have an idea on how i'd make a move
but in this infinite possibility world, i could figure it out
we'd keep it casual at first, just the occasional sleepover turned into a makeout session, then maybe further
we wouldn't tell our parents and the door would be closed
we'd probably tell our close friends, but not the whole school
we'd be lying in bed together one night at 3 am
when she'd ask me if i wanted to be something more, if i liked her that way
but how could i not?
she was special, passionate, always friendly always compassionate and this strange type of beauty that you just don't find down the street
i'd tell her of course, and maybe we'd tell more people and walk in public hand in hand
i can see it
i don't know if we would last
but i know i would cherish our time forever
**** now i rly hope ppl from school don't see dis lol
She is many things to me...

Captivating!
She is captivating!
Knowing only that I want to wrap her in the finest silks and wreath her in clover,
And pray that her reign of my heart may never be over.

Elegant!
She is elegant when she walks with her head held high,
And draws many a look from astonished passerby.

Brilliant!
She is brilliant!
Her mind creates kingdoms
which span beyond the wings of heaven's most radiant angel,
There is darkness in there,
But not all darkness is evil.

Beautiful!
She is beautiful in an otherworldly way,
And I shall never tire to gaze upon her fair freckled face,
around which tawny tresses tenderly play.

Enchanting!
She is enchanting with every eloquent sentence she sings,
And my spirit rejoices and relishes in the euphoric serenity she brings.


She is many things to me,
She always has been,
And always will be.
 Apr 2014 Zanele Tlali
Love
Gay
 Apr 2014 Zanele Tlali
Love
Gay
Don't stand there and treat me with pity,
If you pity me,
Then tell me.
If you you hate me,
Then tell me.
Don't treat me like the lesser,
Because I'm not.
Don't treat me like I'm sick,
Or confused...
Because I'm not.
Gay does not mean lesser.
It doesn't mean sick,
And it doesn't mean confused.
It means that we are open,
Open and beautiful...
We can see the possibilities of love.
We have a different view on life.
We see things from a different perspective.
We're not lesser,
Or sick,
Or confused.
We're different.
Please,
Learn to understand that.
Gay
An open letter
To all the pieces of ****
Who use gay as an insult.
You really need to stop
Pretending that you are better
Than someone else
Because you prefer to
Put your **** in a different place.
You really need to stop
Pretending that being straight
Makes you more worthwhile.
You really need to stop
Pretending that "no ****"
Is an acceptable thing to say
Ever.
You really need to stop
Pretending that you're not afraid
That a man will look at you
The same way you look at women
You really need to stop.

Gay means happy
A ****** is a bundle of sticks
And you are homophobic.
 Apr 2014 Zanele Tlali
Mishka
Poem 1
 Apr 2014 Zanele Tlali
Mishka
As a child I learnt that there is an international signal for
help me
save me
get me out of here
And I played my hands waving and high like a broken robot asking the sun and moon to save my soul
They didn't listen
And I have since spent the years inventing new signals to get your attention
Broken twisted gestures intended for shock and abhorrence
delicate hands, crouched fingers, a thumb in a field of wheat
honest
honest
why don't you see me
Why can't you save me
There is supposed to be an internationally recognised signal for
"Help"
So why is the world blind to my troubles
when I throw myself into water and wave at the sky
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