My Fate
The moment my master returned, I should have known,
Known that no mercy would befall on me,
But I had no choice,
I never did,
I who was born in slavery.
So the purge began
With the slaying of the suitors.
We twelve were summoned.
We twelve witnessed the carnage:
Splattered blood and spewing guts;
Mangled limbs and crooked necks;
Startled faces and twisted lips
remaining etched in my head until the end...
We lifted many a limp body away,
Then the intense scrubbing began,
The Master's word had been explicitly clear,
The cold hard floor bruised my knees,
Salty tears ran down my cheek,
Teeth gritted in anguish,
Watching the hollow eyes of the other girls
My blood mingled with
That of the suitors',
I scrubbed on, wishing
my Fear
my Sorrow
my Shame,
Would also fade,
It was not so
The words of Telemakhos were spoken with venom,
The insult revolved around my head,
I prayed to the gods,
But realised it was perhaps their will,
Nemesis had done her job,
So it was with a heavy heart,
That I too faced my fate,
Into the clutches of Hades
Wadzanai Mufunde