By Kenganzi Anitah Maverick

Not every declaration of love comes from someone who knows how to love. Promises can sound sincere and still leave wounds behind.

In True Love Doesn’t Hurt, Kenganzi Anitah Maverick reflects on deception, broken promises and the painful difference between being told that you are loved and being treated with love. However, the poem does not end with betrayal. Its speaker chooses forgiveness, carries the memory of what happened and eventually finds the strength to move forward.

You saved me from deceiving masters
whose talks burnt the inside plasters.

How I waited for their night response,
the days to repose the resonance.

He said he loved me.
He said he would never leave me.

Made me the prey.

The forever reverberated daily in a dry.

I forgave, but I won’t forget.

I rise, I shine,
I found my way in the trend.

— Kenganzi Anitah Maverick