To Vho Bae Msutu

For the whole month of February, I will be posting a letter of gratitude to the people who have contributed immensely to the woman I am today. Some letters I’m thinking of sending to those I’ve written about and some I hope are never read. This will be the first time I post daily. So I am really keen on seeing how it will turn out, both for me and for those who follow this blog. I look forward to your thoughts and feedback in the comments section below. The theme for all the letters is that ‘We Are Stories’ and I will be telling mine in #29LettersOfGratitude for a whole month. If you would like to join me (PLEASE DO!!!) remember to link me in your posts.

I know you will read this because you’ve always been the most loyal companion of my words. I still reminisce about the admiration you showed me, the night my first essay was published on Thought Catalog. For the longest time you were the only one I told, my maiden heart captivated by the joy I heard in the voice note, you sent me that summer night in Port Alfred.

Ours is a story I tell with childlike delight. Because you’ve always held me with the purest openness. Maybe that is why I rejected you at first, because I’d never known what it felt like to be loved out loud.

Thank you for all the forgiving you did in the beginning, when I was incapable of even knowing how much of you, I was hurting.

I still shudder when I remember those early days of my salvation. The savage I showed contradicting the manners a young lady should always embody.

Thank you for sticking around long enough to witness me growing into a woman that severely appreciates your devout commitment.

Thank you for being the only man constructed with the softest caress below the skies.

Thank you for all the music you send me, the word banks you borrow from to express your deepest sentiments. Each lyric binding us closer together.

Thank you for being the reason I take pleasure in being photographed, I always hesitate when it isn’t you by my side.

Thank you for the priceless moments you share with me, you’ve offered me more than I know how to give myself.

Thank you for every selfless sacrifice, a reminder of my value when I am cherished.

Thank you for walking in the scorching sun for me, always ready at the end of the cliff to ask ‘how high’.

Thank you for travelling innumerable distances just to sit quietly beside a moody me in a crowded hall.

I love you because you loved me first. But still, you are here. Whenever I pull out my hand for you to hold, you’ve never wavered with your firmest grip. And for every time I stutter, I can only hope I make up for my speech impediments with these random-scripted-declarations of my gratitude.

So thank you for never once making me feel like I am difficult to be held by your heart. I’ve enjoyed every bouncing reflection of your thoughtful glance.

I’m sorry I embarrass you sometimes but you know I can’t stand the chauvinism of your church. But even then your correction is always done quietly when we are alone.

Oh and before I forget, thank you again for delaying your East London trip, so I could fall in love with my first poem with you in the same room.

I love you Vho Bae Msuthu and Thank you for always being mine ❤

Cover Photo By: Lutendo Malatji

---

Do you have a best friend of the opposite sex? How is this relationship compared to all your others?