It's Still Life

The Girl of Goats

The man arrived
on the back of dawn dew air.
If only, if only to turn back time.
If only to be there.

For her.

Moonlight had a creased disregard
that night – it was black
as a crushed star. The moon pulled at him,
and he knew its crush.

She told him of
cursing the wind with her teeth,
on her knees,
bloody hands spilling the earth.

And the Miracle Man’s wife
took the baby,
warm and soft as rain, and wrapped it
in cloth and thin silence.

There was chanting and singing
of women from the village.
And the baby was a girl.

The Miracle Man chose her name.
Binti Mbuzi.
The Girl of Goats.

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122-words. #10 (draft) of The Goatherd. Some artwork is created using Midjourney AI, and is identified as such in the ALT text or captioned. Imagery and poems ©Misky 2023.