Rondeau for Romeo

Nkateko Masinga

my lover speaks of boston
and i ask which one – the card game,
the dance or the place. are you lost on
semantics and struggling to give a face to the name?
catfish me anytime. i’m already in love. gift me a balaustine,

red and rose-like but not as sweet. shakespeare lied – it’s not the same.
we can play solo whist, dance a variation of the waltz. that’s all boston
isn’t it? serenade me, master soloist of words, i won’t blame
you for trying. you intrigue me, reading jane austen

novels on my front porch, dizzy with aspartame
don’t save me. this is the path i’m lost on
you sing to me. the cards i’ve been dealt with i blame
no-one for. my lover speaks of boston.
on the telephone and i know which one to claim
the dance. love, let’s dance the boston.

Nkateko Masinga is an award-winning South African poet and 2019 Fellow of the Ebedi International Writers Residency. She is currently the director of the Internship Program at Africa In Dialogue, an online interview magazine that archives creative and critical insights with Africa’s leading storytellers, as well as the founder and managing director of NSUKU Publishing Consultancy. She is the author of a digital chapbook titled the heart is a caged animal, published by Praxis Magazine. Her latest chapbook, psalm for chrysanthemums, has been selected by the African Poetry Book Fund and Akashic Books to be published in the 2020 New Generation African Poets chapbook box set.