It is my mouth that went dry and my eyes that fell dark. It was your hands, slippery as eels and your teeth, sharper than a shark’s. Maybe if you smiled instead of grimacing love would have found you but you were hard and rigid. You pushed them away and hugged yourself. You condemned the rescuers together with the victims. You chased away the Christians together with the sinners, now who will get a hold of you? Who will glue you together now that you are crumbling? You were in the light, how on earth couldn’t I have seen you fading? Maybe if you turned away from your fantasy and looked to the other side you would have seen, but you were drunk, drunk on rose petals and starry eyes. You were stoned and hooked to whispers on your neck and honey in your ears. You fell hard, you broke apart and had your parts spattered and scattered all around. You tried and I chocked seeing you that way, trying to say but words don’t come out. You want to stand again but you are a lump of mud in the rain. Where are your legs? Where are your arms? You faded into oblivion and the whispers long left. You are a carcase, no hope of life in you. You are a bad rose, withered by time and tide, an ugly scar reopened, dripping pus and rotten blood. You who once were a beauty are now an ulcer, a leper that the society rejected. You should have seen and known that they were chewing you, a piece of bubble gum that just lost its oomph. You are beyond salvation, you are miles away from redemption. Walk now, the path of shame you carved. Climb the mountain of sorrow that you piled. How sad that you have no one to help you up, to hold your hand and guide your dim eyes. It is a long and lonely path, but the sun shines on you, doesn’t it? Let lightning light your path and thunder crush the manacles on your feet. Let hail cool the blisters on your toes and dew quench the thirst on your tongue. Refuse to be strong, refuse to be consoled. Mourn deep into the night, with the coyotes and the wolves. Let your rugged self be carried away, by the mighty waves of the Zambezi. Refuse to swim, let the murky water purify your soul, let the deep spirals knock every whisper of breath out of your heart. Sleep, sweet and tired one. Rock to the spirals and caresses of moss on stone, till sleep washes over your eyes, and the nightmares maul you to shreds. Rest sweet and tired one, alone you go. She who was loved by the people sinks unknown and falls unhindered. Remember us when you hit the bottom, and we sure will remember how you owned the throne. It is goodbye lovely, it is goodbye.