Barbican Young Poets 2019-20
Thembe Mvula
'CUTIS'
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CUTIS
when a locust is wounded, a clot forms
as a seal between its outer
and two inner layers of cuticle.
cells on either side of the cut secrete
new endocuticle. the secretion spreads
across and under the wound.
eventually it turns hard. this doesn’t heal
the injury but creates a thick cushion
inside.
grief is like that.
i let the flakes settle on my scalp
like wedding confetti.
my belly rumbles and i treat it
like an unknown caller id.
in the deepest layer of myself,
reruns of us laughing
whilst clearing the kitchen
and how you’d snap your
fingers when you danced
bolster me in living
without you.
About Thembe Mvula
Thembe Mvula is a South African writer and poet, a Roundhouse Poetry Collective and Barbican Young Poets alum. Her poetry often celebrates, unpacks or laments all that is tied to home, relationships and self. She has headlined nationally and internationally, including at the Tate Modern, Oslo Afro Arts festival and has featured at Latitude festival. Thembe's TEDx talk on The Power of Poetry and Vulnerability has been translated into Mandarin and Cantonese. Her debut poetry pamphlet, We that Wither Beneath, was self-published in March 2019 and listed in top 52 books of the year by the Poetry School. She is currently undertaking a masters in Creative Writing at the University of Oxford.
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