I promise myself

[Wamwanda]

I PROMISE MYSELF

The fights
How could I forget them
Yet each time I took a bath
The scars glittered
With each touch of water

Again, I loved you with these scars
With these pieces of my broken heart
I didn’t want to let go
Your eyes pleaded with me to stay
I thought I saw love in them

Now I sit by the road
Seven mouths to feed
And one filling my belly
Watching husbands drive their wives home
With food for there children

I could have left the same day you filled my belly
With the first seed of your youth
I could have left the same night you tattooed
This scar in my left ear
I didn’t

You drink from noon to noon
Fight with bartenders and maids
I hear you got Five more seeds out there
Here I sell groundnuts and peanuts
I do have seven mouths to feed
Ten mouths, including you and me, I eat for two

Your sweet voice, your warm hands
Your promises of the future, too good to be true
Your eyes when you look at me
When you pump and I moan
Gives me false hope, gives me new seeds

I promise myself to leave
I swear,I do
How can I free myself from these chains
The scars remind me of your cruelty
Our seven kids reminds me of your goodness in bed

© Lewis wamwanda