19.7.25
You said you could not live
under duty again —
not to any woman,
not in love.
As if love were a weight,
As if love could bind.
You know as well as I
that love is rhythm.
A remembering.
I watched you remember
every day—
In how you fed the animals,
spoke to the flame,
carried silences,
answered your mother’s voice.
In how you held the past
without flinching.
In the way
you moved
as if everything
was sacred.
You live by ritual.
You live by duty.
Walking beside you,
I saw how much of you was already given,
And I saw duty in letting go.
-Lele
Lele Muthali 