Musical Chairs

Musical Chairs





we've been playing musical chairs

to the sound of our skipping heart beats

chairs substituted by these two yearning hearts

with no cushions to soften the blows

as we keep stumbling and falling

every fall harder then the last

but these bruises are beginning to hurt



the music is slowly fading

slowly swallowed by the echoes of unwanted truth

I know the truth is meant to set us free

but I wish you'd never told me

your freedom has left me enslaved

entangled by a noose of reality tightly clenched to my neck

squeezing the very last breath from me



it's sickening

how these butterflies take flight

and dance at the sound of your voice

it's weakening

how my knees give way

leaving me no choice but to stay



regretfully, I must leave

pack up my pride filled suitcase

and leave this love behind

because it was never mine to begin with





but before my departure let's have our last dance

swirl and twirl into a blissful fantasy

come, come dance with me

let our eyes lock gaze long enough

for me to search your soul until it feels like home



saddened by a fate that cannot be

yet still immaculate in its possibility

the Moon shed a tear on our behalf

which transcended as droplets

and left us here dancing in the rain



your lips, soft as rose petals

sang a lullaby so sweet honey combs could rival

my head, stubborn and heavy fell perfectly on your chest

as if pillows had long deprived me of such comfort



I must tell you what you fail to ask

though I may wish it unsaid the next moment

my silence towards you was never meant to punish you

I realised how I cannot be near you without being near you



so I pulled back the lever of this ferris wheel

because you will never leave her

and I'll keep going around and around

I'm bound then I'm found by him

truth is, we broke the chairs

so no one else can ever play the game like we did

Thulisile Ngomane 

Thulisile Ngomane is a South African poet and writer from Barberton, a small town in Mpumalanga. Her first written theatre production, Soaked (2018) debuted at the National School of The Arts in Johannesburg. Her poems have appeared in print as well as the online literary journal Down in the Dirt.