Her hands by her side Head down Shoulders dropped and eyes fixed on an unknown prize She snails by in fear Fear of pointing fingers and heart breaking laughter Those words like a butcher’s knife swims through her melancholic melanin skin She wonders if Odomankoma (God) painted her in haste She has blood for tears…
Effie Nkrumah “Benumah” (guest author)
Her name is Effie Nkrumah but she is better known simply as Benumah, her pen name. She is a multifaceted artist – she is a writer, a poet, an actress and a director – and works in the Academia. Benumah tells AfroWomenPoetry that she started consciously writing in 2011: “I needed a way to get…
The Mirror
I look in the mirror. My reflection I expect to see. But what I see is not my reflection. What I see is truth! An image blurred with pain. The sorrows of the world. The troubles we face. Told as a story by the mirror. The stories. Never spoken. Yet, told in detail. By the…
Stank with Sweat
The brave face I wear is never washed It stinks with sweat my mother’s and mine She taught me how to put it on to fit my wobbly bones to be the face that you would know My brave face has a smile it lasts for thirty seconds and plays back after a minute It…
The Searching Cheats
Whirl of the wind sing decades of familiar tunes Encroaching voices of old whispering stories untold Cold the breeze our bodies freeze The Misplaced Birds they wail they say “We have lost our way” We are to show them their way We? We point They screech, “Where?!” We point again And again Then we tell…
This Loose Upon My Eyes
This loose upon my eyes Held tight in shape by society’s lies Reduced me to help. Reduced me to help. This loose upon my eyes Which society likes Trying to put these turkeys above me I am weak, I am starved, they might make a Panda of me They like me in this mud He…
Soul Approval
I’m here to tell you a story about a woman who hated herself Not because she was poor or ugly Not because she was orphaned or homeless But she just did And I’m here to tell you a story about a man who hated his life Dreaded every moment of it Woke up each day…
Beauty Knows No Shame
A new kind of beauty to embrace and to celebrate. There’s no room for shame here. There’s a power that pushes through from within; There’s a power that will push out and bring my bloody insides with it… But that’s something of a pain that I’d love to succumb to, in a natural, agony-sedating, physical…
Loving God
Have you ever fallen in love with the sea Loved her so fiercely Your orgasms are unending. Uncompleting. Unrestraining. Damn.. Love it when she’s mad When she reaches out in waves Tidal energies immobilise my senses I rise into her Deep into her Feel her heart beat In the middle of her vulvic ocean Motion…
Oh, Woman
Woman, I see a woman Everyday in the mirror I see a woman And everything I look at mama I see a woman Wonderful woman, mother of nature Chorus: Yeeea yea Beautiful woman, Yeeea yea Yeeea yea… Slowly the storyteller tells his tales His tales of an Eve molded out of a rib Specially made…