My heart no longer breaks
It did so long ago 
It shattered like glass
When your heart stopped racing 
Shards rose to my throat 
cut my vocal cords 
and pushed a river through my eyes

 A piece found its way 
through my scream to the sky 
The other appeared 11 months later 
in your brother's first cry 
Born wise beyond his years
he pieced together the cracks
But breaking like that 
my heart can never again do 
and forever is missing the piece in the sky

© Ann-Elize Petersen, 2011

Missy takes the steps
And walks to centre stage
For a moment she looks down
Then takes a breath
And starts to sing in praise 

Missy’s voice brings forth
A tune soft and pure
Pain-filled words from her lips
Choke up the place
Leave not one eye dry 

Missy sings and says farewell
To her mama
By disease turned into someone else
But still her mama
And gone too soon 

Missy sings biting back the tears
To greet a future on her own
Through the months the years
Missy sings
Sings her blues and makes it sound like rock 

© Ann-Elize Petersen, 2010

Lifeless to the naked eye
in the wind the pupa sways
Time moves and strings the days
while out to dry she hangs her skin
and patiently prepares the core within
to shed her shell and be born a butterfly

My son has a new friend
We shake hands
and I
appologise for breaking up their play
Perhaps again another day?

Out the gate we go
across the parking lot
when from the shop next door
a mother and her daughter come

That little black boy you were talking to, who was he?

Her voice cuts across the space
Instantly my thoughts race
In flashes phrases come to me
of freedom and equality
and building up humanity

But in our shops
our homes
our parking lots
We still box
label
de-humanise

Trapped within the borders of our kinds
We plant the seeds that feed tomorrow's minds
With our words
We conjure images
that stick
and shape
and mark

or

cross
and build
and reach

Hi, I'm Ann
Would you like to play?

Like a dam wall that broke
Tears came and would not stop
Then through the mist it dawned
They were not just for this one loss
But for all the other for whom they were not shed
Abida, who at eight had bullets snuff out her light
Bloutjie, who drowned while saving a life
John, brutally murdered on a beach
Jakes, struck down way too soon
Sissy, Janine and Colleen, who fought for as long as they could
Gerhard, who first completed the race
And now Chris, who came home to go home
All these beautiful souls came and gave
They never got the torrent they deserved
Until today
And now they live