i want to be
summery myself
and do winters
with you
This little one (the poem, not the greater striped swallow) has been hanging around for a while. The editor in me was convinced that I had to develop it to include autumn and spring.
The writer in me thought: Oh gawd, what a chore. (Besides, Limpopo, South Africa, where I live, really only has summer—about 9 months of it, according to my body—and winter.)
The poem said: “I’m finished, but you don’t yet understand me.”
This week I understood. It’s a love poem (a poemette) that asks for a lot of space; for an expanded experience of love, away from the enmeshment of domesticity, apart from what I sometimes jokingly call “the cult of coupledom”.
It also celebrates the unpartnered times of life, which are precious too and ask urgently that you value yourself; build rich, life-long friendships; create prolifically in your free time. Commitments that can (should?) sustain the partnered times.
P.S. Thank you to my dear friend (and mentor), animal communicator Kate Muller. Much of this clarity came after speaking to her. Thank you also to nature/trails guide Wayne te Brake, who patiently answered my queries about bushveld creatures who winter together.
PHOTO: Andre Valadao
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