My Words. Poem by Thabani Khumalo

My words are physical
Like a brick that built a high wall -
Like the air that carries particles of dust -
Like the waves of the rising sea
That make the land feel warm and dry -
Like the fire flame that curved the sheet of steel
And the hammer's dome that wrought out the crease on a metal's plain -
Like the savor of the salt on an open wound
that was sweet as sugar to the lover of pain
Or the sound of drums and the sight of a dancing queen... My words are physical.

They are like a drug from the doctors' chest
Lying dormant until that special day
When a patient will yet be limp in really ill
And there the doctor scopes from the symptoms borne; He knows them all from the illness' source
And slits it right there at the culprit's throat.
I give a dose as per the nature of an illness caused
And my words will work when they meet a somatic - They'll heal a soul from its dire aches.
Like the doctor's knife that cuts to heal
and the doctor's drug that sobers minds,
My words are physical.