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

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