Falling into a War Zone
Abigail George

Back when we were growing up,
It was a world unseen. A famished world
Filled with the blueprint of angels.
The moody blues brainwashed us.
Missing persons. Human bodies.
From hell to eternity. Back to Swaziland.
Little girl lost in portraits of smoke.
Mirrors.
 
The thumbprint of God was
Looking down four square on us.
I could feel the summer’s heat
Through your cool handprint.
Glass beads against your forehead.
Everything those days was shadowy
Church politics. A bittersweet
Victory.
 
There was a well of loneliness.
Staring us in the face for a while.
Like butterflies and moths
Careening towards the light.
Our minds were black then blue.
Your smile hovered. Drawing you back
From strangers. Complicating the
Small stuff.

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Abigail George writes for Modern Diplomacy. She also contributes bimonthly to a symposium on the Ovi Magazine: Finland's English Online Magazine. Her fiction was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She has received two writing grants from the South African National Arts Council, another from the Centre for the Book in Cape Town, and one from the Eastern Cape Provincial Arts and Culture Council. Her work is published and is forthcoming in African Writer, the inaugural issue of Centrifuge, Every Day Poems, ITCH The Creative Journal, Peaches Lit Mag, Short Story Day Africa, Spontaneity 7, The Copperfield Review, and Toad Suck Review.