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Melissa Sussens

Spell for Time

​First, give me three handfuls of hourglass
sand, dust running in reverse.
Give me the echo of lost friends’ footsteps
going backwards, the screech
of six cuckoos marking the hour.
Give me two tockings of a wrist watch
with its batteries run down to empty,
an infinity of 6pms. Add two blank pages 
from my high school diary and throw
all of this into the leaking hands free spinning
on my wall. Stir in a minute long pillow scream
and the sound of my fingers rattling
the computer keys into another history.
Grind and twist it all together.
Let it race twice around the clock
and then stop. 
Rest it for a fortnight
in a dark and damp corner, next to the chronicle
of unwashed dishes. Remember
to set a timer and then toss it in,
still ringing. Spill two lifetimes of this elixir
directly down my throat and watch
my days lengthen. Watch my shoulders loosen.
Watch me find my words again, 
speak poems out of silence.
Watch as I stretch into
the space of hours unmarked
by my checklisted plans.
I pause to smell the sunset.
Stop to admire the bread rising.
Suddenly, a moment is widened
by my presence, my mind uncluttered
of its lists, of all the other 
places I should be. On the beach walk
I meditate on each grain against my toes.
See how my toffee ice cream does not melt
to puddle around my knuckles.
Instead, it lives a decade on my tongue.
Watch as I write the book;
its pages are the after of a lifetime
present. Each moment is enough.

Biography

Picture
​Melissa Sussens (she/her) is a queer South African veterinarian and poet. Her work has appeared in Capsule Stories, Horse Egg Literary, Anti-Heroin Chic, SFWP Quarterly and Gnashing Teeth Publishing, among others. She has performed at the Poetry In McGregor festival and at Off The Wall and placed 2nd in the New Contrast National Poetry Prize. By day she works as a small animal veterinarian and whenever she’s not doctoring animals, she assists in teaching Megan Falley’s Poems That Don’t Suck international online writing course. Melissa lives in Cape Town with her partner and their two dogs. Find her on Instagram @melissasussens and on Twitter @girlstillwrites.
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ISSN 2639-426X
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  • Home
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  • Issues
    • Issue 49
    • Issue 48
    • Issue 47
    • Issue 46
    • Issue 45
    • Issue 44
    • Issue 43
    • Issue 42
    • Issue 41
    • Issue 40
    • Issue 39
    • Issue 38
    • Issue 37
    • Issue 36
    • Issue 35
    • Issue 34
    • Issue 33
    • Issue 32
    • Issue 31
    • Issue 30
    • Issue 29
    • Issue 28
    • Issue 27
    • Issue 26
    • Issue 25
    • Issue 24
    • Issue 23
    • Issue 22
    • Issue 21
    • Issue 20
    • Issue 19
    • Issue 18
    • Serenity
    • Issue 17
    • The Audio Room
    • Issue 16
    • Issue 15
    • Issue 14
    • Play It Again
    • Issue 13
    • Issue 12
    • Issue 11
    • Issue 10
    • Issue 9
    • Issue 8
    • Issue 7
    • Issue 6
    • Hand to Mouth
    • Issue 5
    • Issue 4
    • Issue 3
    • Issue 2
    • Issue 1
  • Submissions