You open the door for a new year,
Wolf-Month,
and then proceed to devour the pigs.

Luring us into taking vows,
you yourself make promises,
each of which rings untrue.

uMasingana —
we will look at you with suspicion.
False in all your claims,
you drag your heavy feet
from one blistering day to the next,
beating on our heads with your thunderous fists.

 

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NaPoWriMo — Day Four: In his poem “The Waste Land,” T.S. Eliot famously declared that “April is the cruelest month.”  Write a poem today in which you explore what you think is the cruelest month, and why.

I chose January.  Here in Zululand, in the Southern Hemisphere, January is stifling hot and humid.  The Zulu people measured time by the moons and therefore had thirteen months each year.  January was “umasingana,” which means “peeking out suspiciously.”  January is not a month you can trust.

I also learned that “January” comes from the Latin word “ianua” (meaning “door”). I was taught that January was named after “Janus,” but that is apparently not so. (I learn a lot during GloPoWriMo!)