It's Still Life

Bounce

And there’s a girl
who laughs at crows,
the ones that bounce across
the grassy dry,

and she
bounces against her mother’s hip,
this girl, Binti Mbuzi,

is inked by soil’s spit and mud,
steeped in its quietude.
Hers is a childhood of perfect hours,

and today, she feels its

flaming morning, fit to
flit from flower to flower,
like the sun winging upward,
and melting the air.

And she
measures each goat’s voice
in echoes against
the sky

dark clouds glued together,
booming thunder.
Binti Mbuzi laughs,
and bounces

as the goats bleat out their worry,
and sing along
with thunder’s fatal song.

They press and tuck against
the woman and her child,

as crows bounce across the ground.

---

149-words. #11 (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.