Love Poem: Love and Apartheid
Trina Layne Avatar
Written by: Trina Layne

Love and Apartheid

After dark  
in blinding night, 
malicious lips 
have heavy eyes. 

Eros leads me to my heart, 
to flesh that can't be masked. 

Blackness is a maze. 
Within the maze, 
there's blackout. 

Sighing ophidians petrify.  
Burly trees 
inhibit radiant starlight -  
carnivorous evening 
spawning rebellion. 

Inside cavernous jungles, 
treason grows a lush shade:
apt for hatching secrets;
covering indiscretion;
purloining moments.

Me, my muscovado baby -
career paramours  
hanging off jagged hems
of a wild world,
hijacked by dermis politics:
leaning blacks,
leading whites, 
and materialist divergence.

We dream
to play
undivided
under one sun,  
where varied skins 
glisten as diamonds
but Knights in white satin charge 
on pale horses - 
gavels and gallows raised - 
extracting sweet ivories 
from awakened anacondas 
and brooding bamboo.