Bio
Khayelihle Benghu is a nurse and emerging writer based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Her poems has appeared on Ake Review, Metphrastics and Person of Interest.
Khayelihle Benghu
The Lantern's Vigil
The river keeps its silence,
yet lanterns drift like prayers.
Each flame bows to the current,
each spark recalls the dead.
The reeds lean in to listen,
the moon rehearses grief.
A chair waits by the shoreline,
its shadow holds the name.
The body keeps its echoes,
the wind repeats the vow.
No hand can still the water,
no voice can bind the night.
Yet presence will not falter,
yet breath will not recede.
The lanterns vanish slowly,
but memory does not drown.