SAYONARA

SAYONARA (Goodbye)

By Mike Kaupembe

Sometimes what’s eating you away
Abides right under your nose
No blood on the floor
No village drum warning
No night crier shouting
Nor the hooting of an evil owl
That portends a bad omen
Just some deafening silence
And a quiet little tremor
As it makes itself at home within

You can’t see it in the mirror
It remains hidden from your eyes
No cracks upon your skin
Wordlessly it hums between your ribs
Like a secret violin
Settles in the silence
Munches on gently, politely and painlessly
So not even your shadow
Suspects a fight

You laugh like it’s nothing
You move like you’re whole
Say “I’m fine” but you're not
While it studies your weary soul
Bit by bit tracing every fracture of faith
Reading the quiet between your every breath

Meanwhile the loudest war
Has just begun
Something invisible
Is taking measurements slowly
Learning every weakness
Every place feeble it knows
Deciding how much of you
Can vanish today
Without leaving a trace

It never rushes violence
Doesn't kick down the door
It waits for midnight
When you can’t run anymore
When silence becomes louder
And the dark feels alive
That’s when you hear it
Drifting closer than air
And hey presto!

At that moment, your soul
Has already started mourning you
Sayonara!