Photo credit: Angela Bailey. Source: Unsplash.

There’s a piece that defies this collection:

grotesque as an accessory,

ill-fitting in form,

gaping,

lack-lustre,

scratchy,

suffocating. . .

 

How does one coordinate Vulnerability in an ensemble,

when it stumbles on a catwalk

lacking all finesse?

 

Masquerade, maybe?

Dramatically sullen colour palettes?

Billowing fabrics?

To soften where it jars.

 

Such armour is so chic,

a la mode,

in vogue.

 

Such armour brandishes

the shrill hollow smiles and laughs

of a gaunt happiness,

an off-the-rack success

of marketable glory.

 

As the chagrin of Avant Garde expands:

a surreptitious desire deepens,

gnawing,

just to be real.

 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Aaishah Mayet was born and bred in the City of Gold, Johannesburg, South Africa. She currently works in the healthcare sector which for her has bridged the frontiers of our shared human experience. As a self-confessed bibliophile of many years, literature remains, at once, her teacher and her sanctuary. Her works include “Haiku” published in the Lotosblute, as well as poetry published in Agbowo‘s “Limits” issue, Poetry Potion, Active Muse, and Amaliah.