Poetry by Yolanda Mpelé

                            ​M I T C H Ǝ L L CC


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Sober

my love, my romance
who were you when you were not here ?
who else did you promise the world to? The moon ? And other milky ways ?
I like to boast about my healthy health, my readiness, my already set
when the public is gone
my act turns to melo, humdrum, sweet tragedy

who were you when you were not here ?
I won't tell you. my secret, my shame, my unauthorised biography
you said you would have loved me (no matter what)
but we wouldn't have even met
I had another lover, stronger, stickier, shinier (but not made of gold)
he was called alcohol and I lived with him and all his children, shame, sadness and loneliness
the two of us loved to hang out at night laughing together, crying together, singing together
you wouldn't have had any space my love
you wouldn't even have known you were in a ménage à trois
like in a vaudeville, i knew where to hide him, closets are everywhere

and then one day
it wasn't daytime but dawn. when demons are still sleeping.
I met the one you have in front of you
I married her on the spot
she woke up dancing
liquor makes her sick you see (that's why she took her time to manifest)
she's always ecstatic
I am me, you are her

this dance, this call, this vibration
she is me I am her
present in the present
together we waltz

your turn, my love
who were you when you were not here ?

Yolanda Mpelé is a theatre actress and a translator. Born and raised in France, she studied languages and the performing arts in London, UK. She is currently part of the ensemble at NTgent theatre in Ghent, Belgium. She writes poetry in French and in English.

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