"Witching Hour" by Tafara Gava

midnight,

how your moon-sickle

slouches

hooks sleep, seas––

carrying witches & dreams.

i mimic it,

sprawling myself like okavango

i mimic the waning

the waning,

the witching of it all.

after all

what saint shall––

nurse a bullet-ridden herero,

placate a scream

this bushman sees a lobotomy drill––

to mimic is to not

forget. lyre-birds & hyenas mimic

a mouth mimics

a grave, guilt the ache of being

god-gagged.

ghosts, school-children

mimic

reality.

apathy mimics

argon––

black­­­

cats mimic shadows,

i witness them marry under stars

stirring

sin. wherever you are:

ougadougou, here it is:

a war, a gun

mimic it.

Tafara Gava is an MFA candidate at the University of Notre Dame. Gava's work has appeared in The Poetry Habitat.