Poetry: Eternal Sunshine by Sihle Ntuli
Existent because of Terrance Hayes, the golden shovel form lifts up two poems at once, held side by side, fingers interlaced. Sihle Ntuli’s “Eternal Sunshine” finds itself only within that embrace—only within the echoes of Nxumalo’s piece can the full expression, finally, fold out.
Eternal Sunshine
a golden shovel after Khulile Nxumalo’s poem “My lover still blows”
here, my overcast silences become like music
where lost whispers form reverberating echo of my ear
the vivid nostalgia of a different time, at first calm like a water
stream, a mind returned by the sternness of an onlooker’s stare
at my motionless body, until the mind returns home spent
after reliving wars of pasts unchangeable, entering rooms
that once housed passion, oh how raging fires can be hostile
seeking refuge in the blues playing host to unaccompanied words
here, the trumpet could have turned harsh words to air stones
in the rumble of hunger sounding drums, devouring bread with a beard
here, the feet dangle on rounded edges of a creaking bed, just lying there
is it the memories or the silences that gently place wrinkles in my ear
where palms of the Djembe man have no mercy for drum’s skin
as the mind remains pensive amidst sounds of love that hum next door
finding refuge in the blues becoming home to absent love blowing through
wrung by hands whose furious fingers fasten
memory, between index fingers & thumbs as they
pull towards a spotless mind, hoping somewhere, sunshine might finally fold out
Sihle Ntuli
Sihle Ntuli is a poet and classicist from Durban, South Africa. He has had work published in notable publications such as The Rumpus, SAND Journal, Transition Magazine, and ANMLY. He is the author of the chapbook Rumblin (uHlanga, 2020).
