Sometimes love Is running for your life When your tanks are still full Of oxygen, When your heart is still alive, When you can still hear its sound Lub dub Lub dub Sometimes it’s saying “No more” And run for your life. Sometimes love Is choosing yourself, Is Loving yourself, Forgiving-yourself, Mending your own scars,…
Threshold (For my sisters rejecting FGM)
I am seventeen The moon giggles shyly and caresses the skies Sipi Falls cascade in a wave of excitement. I waltz with the falls downstream A tinge of warmth engulfs me My feet rub… My future. The village awakes It is the rite season The search… She descends with a knife I grip my tears…
The 3rd
1- My rebelliousness cowered at the sound of bullets and teargas. 2- I stood behind my parents words and their fear of losing me in the mess. 3- Collapsing needs one to be standing.. but I was already lying down when my mother called to tell me about the news she was watching on TV….
I Love Home
For those people who find laughter Such company Laugh like they are falling apart Or coming loose With tears gliding down their cheeks And these days all this on A mobile phone. For laughter that soars Echoing in every nook For laughter sprayed On blossoming bushes For laughter that escapes out of caves Rising to…
Portrait of a Girl at the Border Wall
All the women in my life are hungry I have written this one hundred times. I do not know how else to tell it: the girl by the roadside, the bruised peach, the narrow collar, the night full of birds. Her body is a long river that cuts through every room. See her in the…
For the blues
It’s 4am and you’re awake like your body’s been paged. You’re wondering if it will be worth it to sleep for 30 more minutes before starting your day. They’re playing a senseless song on the radio and it feels like such a waste of airplay. So you tuck yourself in to rest your brain. You’re…
Melanin Queen
Her hands by her sideHead downShoulders dropped and eyes fixed on an unknown prizeShe snails by in fearFear of pointing fingers and heart breaking laughterThose words like a butcher’s knife swimsthrough her melancholic melanin skin She wonders if Odomankoma painted her in hasteShe has blood for tearsShe is her mother’s dreamThat moment form the womb,…
Brokenpieces
Screaming, yelling Stop please stop, Don’t hurt her no more She wasn’t built for it. Her body can’t handle it, Or maybe it can, at least that’s what she thinks now. Just because a bone gets stronger after you break it, doesn’t mean it has to, The bone does get stronger, but it’s not the…
I Am
I am incapable of feeling justified I search for meaning in things that do not mean much to me I am incapable of loving myself I am unknown That feeling That feeling is unknown to me I begin to question everything I think I feel I question my motives My algorithm My biometric makeup The…