after months

The day of reckoning is upon me and all the seedlings upon my head have become hauling trees thirsty to tear down life and drink of its blood

All I have learnt from it is to tread and rise like a phoenix amid my burnt down fallible flesh;

To never succumb to any studding nerve evoked by fear

I must ride my horse. I must run barefoot and feel the soil pregnant with the sun's rays;

Feel the subtle droplets of rain 

I must drink . I must spit 

I must love and I must withhold 

The ambiguity of life itself is life and to stop learning is to stop living.

Is it not?

So I stand with my roots clutching the soils 

I stand because the Well I drink of is eternal

I do not cower, I will not fall even when storms push me over

I stand with God because he stands with me. 

- RedINK 🎭

- Nthabeleng Abrahams Pheko

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goddess

As I set foot within the castle, a garment was placed on my shoulders and a voice said " Reign with love, reign "
And I looked back from which I came
The muddy planes I crossed
The puddles and the dusty windows I saw the moon through
Another voice echoed " this isn't yours" shoving down images and playing remarks in my head
Now the one who stood before me stared deep into my eyes ,I was nakedly insight
Yet He took my sweaty, begrimed hands
 with shining eyes and a smile; as if He could read me He said " what is yours cannot be taken. What is in you cannot be erased "
He steadily put the crown on my head and kissed my forehead and said " This Is Love "
And all the darkness succumbed to the trumpet which was commanded to sound
 and the crowd watching bowed
 It was finalized that royalty cannot be bound
 I put an armor all around
 Now, it is the one who sees me back who allows only the noble to whisper into this crowned skull
 – Goddess RedInk 👸🏾 

Nthabeleng Pheko

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desire

So many roads trod, there's more to cover.
I was given a candle and a stick for a weapon, but these I've long lost.
 It has been 23 moons passed
 23 summers
 23 winters
 23 autums
 23 springs
 Yet my soul yearns for a season no eye has beheld nor skin felt
 It is it I phantom in heart and mind
 I have touched its fruit
 I have felt its kiss on my lips and its perfume haunts me day in and out
 I stare at the seams and wait for its arrival, for like a deer I shall rejoice when I see it come
 Lo! It is near but like a schizophreniac, I see what no one sees and I hear what no one hears. So I cling to what is before me and listen to its distant calls and walk with my heart as a map, for I know those who are summoned must be led.
 – RedInk 🎭

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Had I not left the burden into someone else's palms, maybe things would've been simpler.

These thoughts rush in my head and I find myself trapped in a trance.

Did I not use myself as a cup, saving what was not to seep into the ground?

Did I not trap what was meant to evaporate?

Did I not try hard enough?

I don't... I don't know

Should I run for hiding every time turmoil appears, especially with these scars in my hands?

Everything I have touched, there I have left my trace

Predictable....so predictable are these steps

Like a Wiseman whispered and said " there, where those steps will tread lies a pitstop ahead ", so I shrunk into my little box and not move, not even an inch

For the greyheads have spoken, who am I not to heed these warnings?

I don't know... I don't know

But, I am a goddess and I create my rules as I go, so no fear shall shut the doors unlocked... unlockedEven with Goliath and evil presiders standing insight, the fire within fumes and unquinched

Lo! I take out this ink sword and cut open these locks

See? These doors open asunder!

By Nthabeleng Pheko

-RedInk poetry🎭

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Under the apple tree

You exchanged words as though the day was your last.
You exchanged glances,
You held hands.
Like two magnets, your emotions attracted,
You stepped forward…
She couldn’t resist the pull of your calling eyes, so she stood and hoped you would
Come closer and read the future in her eyes,
She could be your wife.
She gives in and smiles,
Her heart skips a beat as she closes her eyes,
Under that apple tree, you gave her none but a white lie
You told her you’d marry her,
That you always thought about her,
A second nor day never pass.
You kept at tune,
Told yourself that you have nothing to lose
You lured her in;
Gave her silver coated hope
Whispered secrets of the night;
She slowly gave in and believed
Under the apple tree in mid-summer,
You laid by her side
She was only sixteen,
You were a wolf in sheepskin!
Remember?
Turn to the left, is that her by your side?
You ran off and went to marry another,
You left her with an infant
Alone she had to face her family,
Her broken-hearted mother…
A reminder;
a seed of the once eaten forbidden fruit
You distorted her dreams and fed her sweet lies with the definition of love
Lust as your fuel,
Poisoned and weakened her with your kisses,
How could you be so cruel!?
A man is not a man unless he knows how to treat women…

#RedInk

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Last words

Let me lay and die in my rumblesLet me take my last breath where I foughtLet me cry until only blood comes outLet me tear down my defenses and put down my heavy armorI wave my white flagThe enemy has won.Yes he has.-Red

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Introspection

I hope it rains in the secret corners of my soul
I hope the waves clean all the scars
All the wounds that grew thorns inside
I hope it rains love and sew every torn tissue
I hope every edge is smoothed
For in as much as I sit here in silence
I hear the echoes in my soul
The corners that have much to scare away and not so much for someone to seek and hold
See, I put away these stuffed boxes in corners at the back of my spine so no one knows how much it hurts to bend
Who cares look at the very bones that hold my feet straight and secure my stand¿
Who cares to look at this passage that elongates who I am¿

The very passage that has images of me dying-dead!

Vandalized by my very lover called life
I hope it rains and all my walls drip the pretense
I hope it rains and scrape my sacred walls
I hope it rains peace and quiet the mourning voice seeking to be heard when I smile
I hope it rains inside so my very self sits in silence and not hear the cries
I want to hear it pour and thunder strikes
I hope it shutters these gates and set free the little girl sitting timidly at the back of my pupils unarmed
But then again, who cares¿
- RedInk

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Stop The Abuse

image from:https://www.news24.com/Drum/Archive/in-pictures-celebs-stand-up-against-women-abuse-20170728

Every night she lays on her bed scared
The monster is coming home red
The same soul she once adored and cared is the one pulling out her scales.
On that decorated alter she had swore
Through the death's ,how lovely, meek and how he purred like a gentle cut she adored.
Marriage is sacred, that's what she was told yet she screams from the top of her voice for everyone to hear,
But they don't care, they turn a deaf ear
For every bang made by her skull leaves a mark of despair
While she receives blows from her dear husband
It becomes a norm
A gossip for the hood
"He beats his wife-pale" they whisper as she passes with her goods;
Shame as her garment
Her wounds are like timelines.
His presence used to light up her soul but now casts a shadow of death
The same hands that used to hold her and keep her safe
Are now ones that forcefully open feminine doors to his satisfaction!
The same hands that brutally decreases her breath
Blood guilty hands that dash down a homemade meal in a plate!
Are the same hands that break her bones and leave her half-dead, pale on the wooden floor.
From dusk to dawn her heart sings a song of a fallen angel
Neglected and torn she scrapes the floor with pine-gel
-She mourns
Daily she accepts hash words that murder her spirit; calling her a hoe
The same mouth that used to cheer her up when her days seemed dark-blue is once upon
From it comes out burning lava and a two edged word,
Piercing every ounce of joy left within;
Striping her naked for the neighbors to hear and see
Walls don't hide much anymore
Read her story from her fake smile
This is her new world
A victim in silence
She smiled at the wedding photos
Her fault and her many kowtow
The mansion of her love lies a ghetto
Then she remembers her lover's new motto
She curled into reflection
The everyday fisticuffs and the daily insurrection
All her love and respect drained into her depression
How once they couldn't stay a day without a love session
Now she's just an empty woman without a soul
The daily quarrels has dug a hole
Her children now is her only hope
So she stay with the abuse to protect their tiny innocent souls
His only shame is his wife can't keep quiet
She complains and refuse him his diet
All her complains is the reason for the disquiet
In doubt? ask our neighbor Miss Wyatt
He feels shamed by his actions
How the punches started or whatever reaction
He sits on the silence of his heart and regret his overreaction
His ego betrays the growing insubordination
A man becomes dead unless he knows how to treat women
Love is the nectar that pour from the heavens
Its effect leaves a mark till the end
So does violence to the fertile soul that bends
Now stop the abuse and the paralyzing violence
Every domestic violence is like a rooted pestilence
It poisons the victim ; young, old and their innocence
What the young sees it grows with virulence
A child sees the abuse on his mother and passes it to his daughter
This generational curse of ruthlessness from his father
Batters and damages every innocence of that toddler
Cycles from families to the generation of others
Stop violence against women
Against the vulnerable
Against the weak
Let love lead...
Written by:
Nthabeleng Pheko #RedInk @artsy_evergreen &
Pharm. Odudu Samuel Akpaete @thunderbolt159
December 25, 2016 at 12:02 am

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Curses On the Mirror

September 2019

Days come near when a black man strikes his own

Hate has infested in the black man's home

You hate your skin yet you chant "I am my brother's keeper"

You hate the blood that's in your veins and those that fought and birth you

Look as the supreme in a different skin make mockery of your kind

To what degree do you hate your own keen that you are blind and see him as a foe?

The black women and men have lost so many before us

Yet you throw stones

Now at yourselves?!

Hypocrites of self hate!

Look into each other's eyes and realize you are burdened with the same woes

You share the same pain

The same lineage, the same dream

Why hit another black man if you claim to protect your own?

Now look in the mirror

You curse yourself!

The root is the core of the tree,

I dug deep beneath the root of Africa for reflection of my world (Africa)

I figure, our golden seeds have be misplaced and replaced with hatred

jealousy bloom among brothers

just because of an imaginary border

a concept of our colonial masters

An eye for an eye will only make you blind

The puppet master sips fine wines as he laughs over this war-play

Curse the puppet master, yes him who controls you to shame your kind

Him whose power births hate and hostility

Him who revokes jealousy

Him who covers your eyes to truth

You are gods of this world yet you're lost

But cry not my brother for one day you will find yourself

Like a child who stumbles and falls yet does not give up to walk

I stand with you black man, you will take ownership, your child will be called Supreme

Your offspring will bring back Africa to itself!

By Nthabeleng Abrahams Pheko & Davies Oluwole Ogunyemi

– RedInk 🎭

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...

He bowed and said a fealty
But don't they all?
Uttering what can only be said and burdensome to do
In tears, swearing by oaths, begging for you to believe it is true
Forgive me for I am not easily influenced
I question and seek for performance
I am not taken up by a passing frenzy and that has helped me survive
Forgive me for I am not easily influenced.
For that I proudly stand
I am not shaken by pretense or a warm kiss from end to end
Before me your actions deceive you
Your words to my ears are like an irritating gong
Allow me to thoroughly examine you and give my final verdict 
For I have heard those words before and I have foreseen results 
A broken heart & mind I place on a golden platter ; see the scars I shamelessly place in sight
Hear the cries that fell on deaf ears but for its own to hearken 
Oh no I am not asking for your pity or attention
That will not sew what is torn and mend what's broken
Don't get too close, least you lose your finger 
I am like a rose, inviting but prickly to the touch but before you throw stones, try to walk in these shoes
Don't lose yourself in depths of my abyss for my winds will blow off the candle light 
Forgive me for I am not easily swift from the ground.
–RedInk🎭

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stardust

There's something that I mean to do

Write you stardust 

Speak you into forever

Rock your soul as it rest in my bosom

There is something I mean to do

Carve your name in my eyes so everyone knows who possess my soul

Whisper into my own ears and plead for mercy

Shun the evil my untamed demons dare to do

Let images of you stay unfiltered

For in my heart & dreams you are reality

In my fertile ground you still grow yet time has passed and declares you decay

How memories died not with your breath

Yet these still remain; dullness, your vogue & emptiness

"Stay" my roots pinned you in but fate plucked you out like filthy water in a sink. 

-RedInk 🎭

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soulmate

My heart beats with this new rhythm
Your name is the song
My inner being dances with excitement for it has found its mate
In me you have opened the sacred gate
Like a bellowing bull I scream silently with content
Blessed is my name
Favored I am called
Daily I blues
I have eaten of the vanity fruit so I am the talk of those who lost tune
I sing hymns and mutter in my dreams
I have drank from your forever cup
Let me not be drunk in vain
Let me not be called foolish forever,
I trust you will fight on my behalf to unfold this very truth, that true love exists in the blossom of hate and fake lives...
I am falling in love with you with each day
Every moment
I wish I met you first, my world would have been complete then
Yet I rejoice for time has prepared me for you
 Although we're countries apart, and rivers separate our paths but nothing limits my affection for you
Nor shall there be any boundaries
We are set apart, we are meant to be.
When I lay awake at night, and starts gather, memories of us abound
Of what the future will be, let me not hold back my faith for I am all in without a doubt
When I wake up each morning , I choose you all over again.
I love you

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Stand still

If you stand very still in the heart of a wood

You  will hear many wonderful things

The snap of a twig and the wind in the trees

And the whir of invisible wings.

If you stand very still in the turmoil of life

And you wait for the voice from within

You'll be led down the quiet ways of wisdom and peace

In a mad world of chaos and din.

If you stand very still and you hold to your faith

You will get all the help that you ask

You will draw from the silence the things that you need

Hope and courage and strength for your task.

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