The End of a Love Affair

Ngwatilo Mawiyoo
Photo by Jerry Riley

Credits:
“Suspend Me / The End of a Love Affair”
Music – Wambura Mitaru 
Spoken Vocal – Ngwatilo Mawiyoo
Backing Vocal – Sara Mitaru
Produced/Arranged by David “Blackman” Muthami

From the album Introducing Ngwatilo, © 2011. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

 

When you are past the fuzzies, past speaking 
each night – calling at dawn, past conjoining 
your life to his by palm and cell phone;

When the memory of you two together, 
after it’s over, protects you from others 
who would block out the sound of your skin

– the small of your back, even – aching 
to be alone, pores breathing air at last, grateful 
while the shadow of him fades;

Silence will be yours to find yourself again,
the one you loved so fiercely before – 
to whom you must eventually be faithful,
 
the one who will not accept shiny stones and flowers – 
the notebooks and vocabulary you collected, scraps 
to prove you learnt something useful on the way.

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Sept./Oct. 2011

Poetry Untethered, the marquee section in this issue, features essays and poems by nine poets from the English-speaking world — including Jane Hirshfield, Ilya Kaminsky, and Maya Khosla.


Table of Contents

Poetry Untethered

"Poetic Collaborations: A Conversation with Dana Gioia"
by
Two Poems, Stephanie McKenzie
by
Four Poems, Nicholas Samaras
by
"Mother Throws Milk Bottles at Soldiers," Ilya Kaminsky
by
An essay by Jane Hirshfield (US)
by
An essay by Ian Brinton (UK)
by

Varia

LETTERS/EDITOR'S CHOICE
by
AUTHOR PROFILE: Valzhyna Mort
by
CITY PROFILE: Reykjavík, Iceland
by
INTERNATIONAL CRIME & MYSTERY: The Crime Writing of Blake Edwards - J. Madison Davis
by
World Literature Today 100th Year