Blue.
I am a 6-year-old
blue pump,
tattooed with mouldy prescription paper.
Faded ink,
a loose cap resting on the mouth piece,
owning a permanent seat on the bedroom floor,
comfortable within a lack of activity.
Content in absence of purpose.
Dust begins to kiss you
when asthmatic lips
forget you.
—Jamal Msebele, London, UK
Jamal Msebele © 2012
Photo by Hayley Madden
Jamal 'Eklipse' Msebele is a 19 year-old award winning poet and Emcee and son of poet and educator Sifundo. His first poetry collection Kaleidoscope has garnered many accolades and is available on Amazon. Jamal is currently at university majoring in English and American Literature with a minor in Creative Writing, alongside performing and mentoring young writers. His most fond memories include opening for Saul Williams and a private audience with De La Soul. Visit www.jamalmsebele.co.uk.
"This poem was written in a workshop facilitated by the wonderful Taylor Mali as part of Hip Hop in the Heartland. In the exercise we were asked to write from the perspective of an inanimate object, it was called "Walking Backwards Into A Metaphor". In the latter part of the exercise we read our work without stating what the object was; the goal being that the audience would still know. This was a particularly fond memory of mine as after reading my piece, Mali described my voice as butter."