The first thing she thinks about, is what the boy is going to wear
What did he wear the last time we had a death in the family?
Maybe that grey suit that makes him look nine years older
That ash-coloured outfit waiting at the back of his closet to steal nine more
The funeral attire that enfolds his form in fabric that whispers despair
In the dark coat, the pale shirt, and the silky black vein
He becomes a vision of loss at this deathly affair
Polished black leather shoes, with symmetrical laces
On unheeled soles that tread among inconsolable faces
In the sombre sea of mourners, he’s tailored for elegiac perfection
Elegant and sleek with every thread
A symphony of decorous woe, as the silent words spread
The weight of this grief, thrown upon his untested soul
Silently adds years as the days of mourning unroll
For in those forlorn garments he stands alone at the edge of devastation
The boy becomes a reflection of chapter’s end
A mirror of life’s eventuality in a world suspended by lamentation
Yet amid the undying currents of sorrow
There’s a flicker of grace
An unexpected strength that blossoms from this cold and desolate space
In the exhausting grey hues he bravely endures and fears
A young boy finds insight far beyond all his years
In the meadows of loss he will learn and he will grow
Forever aged by the grief-engraved lessons he can never undress
And never unknow.
Note: Good news from Avbob. Contradiction, I know. My poem “In The Back of Your Closet, Waiting” was recently accepted by the Avbob poetry competition. This would be my first poetry venture, ever, and I’m lucky enough to get R300 bucks for it (just R50 short), so I’m a bit optimistic.
Yuwinn A. Kraukamp is a bilingual writer from the coastal corner of Cape Agulhas, South-Africa. He’s a natural born creative, a former English— and Communications major at the university of the Western Cape, and a patron (saint) of everything that’s artistically unique and beautifully weird in this world. Yuwinn has worked as a freelance columnist for Network 24, and a freelance journalist for The Southern Post Newspaper since 2022. In 2024 he was the third-place winner of the Diana Ferrus poetry prize; and in April 2026 he was the first-place prize winner of the Njabulo S. Ndebele-themed ‘Rediscovering the Ordinary’ poetry competition. His poem Raw/Rou won the third-place prize at the Bridgette James international contest in May 2026. Both his English and Afrikaans poetry has appeared on various platforms such as Litnet, PEN Afrikaans and Versindaba; and has been published within poetry anthologies such as Ons Kom Van Hier and The Avbob Poetry Project.
He became a member of the Jakes Gerwel Foundation’s network of authors and artists, after participating in a writing fellowship in the Eastern Cape in October 2022. In that same year, he was shortlisted for the Nigerian short story contest—Toyin Falola—and became one of two South-Africans whose writing was honorably mentioned at The Future Feminist Awards in California. Yuwinn’s writing focuses on language identity, political transitions, moral complexity, loss, trauma and rebirth. A variety of his short stories have been published in magazines such as Huisgenoot and Kuier, and within collections such as the Short-Sharp-Stories anthology and FicSci. In 2024, Yuwinn was part of a science-meets-creativity workshop hosted by the University of Stellenbosch and the South-African Research Chair; where he produced climate-change fiction that was published in an oceanic-research anthology in June 2025. In September and October 2025, he participated in a writing residency alongside six African writers at the Johannesburg Institute of Advanced Study (J.I.A.S), where they explored the political roles and responsibilities of poetry and short stories.
You can contact Yuwinn at yuwinnkraukamp@gmail.com regarding potential writing opportunities or projects.
