Womxn

I am woman

I am flawed, I am broken, I am damaged

I am woman

I am beaten, I am trampled, I am Ignored

I am woman

I am confident, I am sure, I am a fortress

I am woman

I bear fruit, I melt hearts, I build dreams

I am woman

I am many things in one

I am undefinable, I am indescribable

I am woman

Alágbádá Iná

Alágbádá Iná

The one with the garment of fire

Àṣẹ̀dá Ọ̀rún

The one who created the heavens

Ẹ̀rù jẹ̀jẹ̀ létí òkún

The mighty one at the edge of the sea

Ọba àwọn ọba

King of kings

Mo tẹríba fún ọ

I bow to you

Títí ayé ni mo ma sìn ọ́

I will worship you for eternity

Invasion

You invade my thoughts

The sweet timbre of your voice plays in my mind every night before I go to sleep

I find myself sitting, wishing, waiting for that good morning text

That “did you sleep well” voice note

That quick check-in before you start your day

I’m left immobile until you hit play

Sign

Waiting for a sign

Anything that could point me to where your thoughts lie

Do you care?

Do I hold a corner of your heart hostage?

Am I all you hoped for and more?

Or am I simply an object of fascination

A puzzle which once solved will soon be discarded

A New Dawn

So many are happy to see this year go and I don’t blame them

How could I?

We crossed over into the new decade with dreams of a new beginning

And what a beginning it was

For most it felt like the beginning of the end

And I can relate

I too felt lost at sea

Tossed about this way and that

The tide almost overcame me

But…

It didn’t.

If you’re here. Reading this…then you overcame it too

This was no small feat

Never forget.

We press forward to a new horizon hoping it will be better than the last

Trusting that our spirits will not be broken

Our hearts will not be met with anguish

Our hopes and dreams will not remain hopes and dreams.

It’s a new dawn, a new day

And it’s ours for the taking

20.10.2020

For once, I don’t have the words.

There are none.

None to express the level of hurt and rage building in my chest.

I knew my government didn’t care; in fact I’ve known for years.

What I can’t reconcile, what I will never accept, is this level of unbridled wickedness.

Nothing that happens after this can make up for what happened today – a thing that should never have been thought of much less executed.

In the past week, I’ve seen a river of bodies unaccounted for.

Women, men, wives, husbands, children weeping as they share their horrid encounters with those sworn to protect.

We asked for one thing; Justice!

And the response was Blood and Tears

Usually I seek comfort in words, but

Nothing can take away this hurt.

Nothing can take away the pain.

There are no words.

None.

Fed the Fuck Up [16-06-2020]

Today for the first time since it all began, I cried.

I’d tried to be strong

I’d done as asked

Unplugged, recharged, tried to focus on anything else

But how do you unplug from life itself?

How can I redirect my focus from an epidemic that threatens to wipe out people that look like me

Where do I recharge when everything is hellbent on draining me?

Today I lost a sister at the hands of a man like the ones she’d been fighting for moments before

The same men who’ve lost their lives for the sin of existing

Over there, a lynching, over there a murder, over there rape, over there injustice, everywhere death.

I ask, what have we done? I have to ask because nothing else makes sense.

There must be some sin, some moment that started this all because we’re here now and everything is chaos.

Even as I pen this, I’m at a loss for where we go next.

The petitions have been signed, donations made, protests marched

And yet here we are, exactly where we began…

Sad, angry and fed the fuck up