Words Like Butter
I want to write in a language so
beautiful when I look back I will not
recognize where Shakespeare begins
and my words end. Because mine
feel like tired letters bent far too
many times they have lost their
vitality and the sheen to light up a
room when they make their entrance.
I do not want them to merely turn
heads for their beauty or elegance or
something far more than the eyes can
see. I want them
to break and contort, come alive with a
fire that cannot be quenched,
trace new roads into hearts ever so
subtly, yet so permanently.
But subtle feels like deception, and
permanence a sea of bodies flowing
to the rhythm of time, so I want my
words to be the wave riding the wind
that brings you home.
About the author
Yanjanani L. Banda is a writer from Malawi. Her first short story, Welcome to Otherhood, was published in the Bristol Short Story Prize’s 15th Anthology in 2022. Her other works have also been published in The Quilled Ink Review and Brittle Paper.
Featured Photo: Brett Jordan
