Nine Lives by Busisiwe Khanyile

And so it all began...
I was an infant...
Born of a strong woman where no bodybuilder could defeat her courage
and heart in mind, body and soul
Where... She was my first love and so it happened that the only deep
cut I had was through my throat...
I loved her...
But I died...

And so it all began...
I was a baby...
Understanding the troubles of the world where it was described as a
place to have 72% of water...
That I could only describe as tears, for no one was happy including myself...
I loved myself...
But I died...

And so it all began...
I was a toddler...
Mastering the art of walking and talking so I can be heard in the
rowdy oceans of the world and not drown in the sorrows of my
yesterday...
I gave up and drowned...
I didn't love...
So I died...

 But it all began...
And I was a child...
Where I was blinded by equivocation...
Where I saw things as wrong and t'was considered right...
I wanted to understand and...

 I was a teenager...
Where my inner child died and I refused to see a future that was as
expectant as the child I was carrying...
As I misunderstood the art of equivocation...
Loved my non-existent nobody...
And so I died...

 But it all began...
And I was an adult...
I learnt to love only to realise love was not fond of me and I hated love!
Only to see people runaway into the depressing joys of marriage, only
to be blinded by love..
I could not see...
Had no love...
And so I died...

But it all began...
And I was a senior...
With experiences that taught me shit!
I decided to put it all behind me...
Where I was racing with the experiences that could only pierce through
my heart and I had a stroke...
Where I realised I'd lost my better half...
I died before I could love...

And so it all began...
And I was a golden oldie...
Where I was cherished like a worthless stone...
Polished with lies and deceit where I was as bright as the darkness
shining within me...
I only existed to a point where I was pierced with the truth of no life...
And so I died...

And it all began...
I fell again and this time, made it about how I get up as opposed to
how I fall into the deceitful seas of life...
I was born...
And so I lived