ISSN: 1941-4137
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
Charika Swanepoel is a South African poet, mystic, and literary scholar. She is currently persuing her MA. in English Poetry at the North-West University. Some of her poems have appeared in New Contrast, Kalahari Review, Itch Journal, The Murmur Journal, and is forthcoming in Aerodrome, and a Medusa's Laugh Press anthology. Charika's poetry collection has been shortlisted for Platypus Press's 2017 Celestial Bodies poetry series. She founded and edits Laurel Magazine and is also reader at Frontier Poetry and Helen: A Literary Magazine and is a blog correspondent for Half Mystic Press and assistant reviews editor at Newfound.
16 Adult, 26 stillborn corpses stranded in open trailer on Joburg highway
Can you imagine the quiet?
No wind, no soft falling air,
no breathing in and out
just cold, stale coffin air.
The title of this poem is the news headline as it appeared that day via News24. The news article confirmed the legitimacy of the incident and assured its readers that someone is looking into what happened. I will always consider this poem unfinished. I really did want to write something extensive and pressing to convey its grief, even its disgust but it came out only as a breathlessness. In the midst of the hustle an bustle of a highway, the frustration of traffic, people losing face, there is and will always be faces just like ours, filled with "cold, stale coffin air", we just never notice it until it stops us.
Glass: A Journal of Poetry is published monthly by Glass Poetry Press.
All contents © the author.
All contents © the author.
