Changeling
By Beverley Ann Abrahams
Yellow tinged light through torn clouds
Green leaves wilting to brown
Butterflies flutter by slowly
Stillness filtered through seasons
Heartbeats slipping into peace
Mind stopped by sliding time
Music like zen in my ear
A whispered breeze trills by
Rising and falling like eyes evading sleep
A dry branch silently falls
Shattering like rain
Birdsong interrupted
A spider slowly knits his web
Trapping summer in a tiny silken crib
I stretch ideas like fishing line
Dipping below dark surfaces
Waiting for forget-me-nots
Holding out for maybe
Wiping away regrets like stale crumbs
Washing clean the guts of failings
Changeling, phoenix, unravelling
Beverley Ann Abrahams
Beverley Ann Abrahams is a mixed-race Zimbabwean poet and short story writer, a teacher of English for 40 years, and an activist against gender-based violence. She has been published in three anthologies of international poets and one regional anthology of female human rights
defenders. She is published in three anthologies of African short stories; and was second runner-up for the Kendeka prize for African Literature in 2022. In 2024 she was short-listed for the inaugural Carnelian Heart (UK) short story prize and the Intwasa Yvonne Vera Award. In December 2024, her poem “Broken Teeth” (Ipikai issue 5) was published in “Dambudzo Marechera At The Old Fire Station” by Oxford Brookes University.
Photo credit: Taylor Gregory
Apricot Press 