What She Thinks: Fiction Friday: The Miracle Worker by Sefi Atta

What She Thinks: Fiction Friday: The Miracle Worker by Sefi Atta: "The first time I read Sefi Atta's Everything Good will Come , I could smell the dodo that Enitan's mother was frying, seriously. I read the ..."

What She Thinks: Fiction Friday: The Cadavers by Eghosa Imasuen

What She Thinks: Fiction Friday: The Cadavers by Eghosa Imasuen: "Someone should write a story titled 'Failure to Get Error String'. I promise to feature it on fiction Friday, maybe my modem will stop givin..."

Unknown

I have seen you before

I know your name

You look familiar, you look like me

Is it the color of your skin or the green of your eyes?

Could it be the way your cheeks flush or your dark chocolatey hue?

You have no idea cause you are neither here nor there

Like a half caste, you are neither white nor black

This I know for sure though

You are me, I am love

Espoir

I should have known

That scattered pieces can never make a whole

I should have known

That the color of freedom can never be coal

I don't know who I am anymore

But still I stand tall

Standing tall has never been easy

And success does never come freely

I know this, I've always known this

Yet I try and I try

Harboring a hope that never dies

This hope I wear around my neck, I place it on my shelf

I assure you there will be no white flag on my door

For I will strive and I will survive

Even if it means I die

I know that this too shall pass… this too shall pass

In Memoriam

Tell me a story

A story of bravery and courage

Of black, white and shackles freed

Tell me a story

Of chariots and horses swinging low so I can hitch a ride

Blue skies and soaring eagles

Tell me a story

Of Hope, love and freedom

Don't tell me that story

Of weeping and wailing

Crying and gnashing of teeth

I don't want to hear that story

It is not a story to be told, to be passed on

I know who I am

I am me, I am free, I am black.

I Didn’t Ask Why

Looking at this here, now, today

I had to know what happened – to me, to us, to what we had

But I didn't ask why

I kept it all inside – the pain, the longing

The endless, hopeless feeling of belonging

To another who decides my fate unkind

Yet so lovingly, I leave it all behind

To move on albeit unwillingly

Unto that which makes me live deceitfully

Taking away my pride, my love and all the good that is in me

Leaving behind nothing but the tendency to self destruct within

Let this be a lesson

From the past and for the future for my person

That knowledge is the key to all

And ignorance will bring the fall

To all things bright and beautiful, creatures great and small.

Freedom

Have you seen her?

She who shines like a million stars

Whose bosom is an altar where we all come to worship

She shares my fame

She bears my name

I wear her round my neck

I place her on my shelf for all to see

I call her mine and I am hers

She is me and I am her

Who is she? You say

She is freedom!

She tells me her dreams and shows me her fantasies

Indeed, she takes me on her wings to places I've never been.

Divinely Beloved

Black or brown, rejoice in all that you own

Whether little, great, mighty or small

Let your hearts find gratitude in all and love, which is the greatest of them all

For great is your freedom

Though once you were chained in Sodom

Secretly your lives were once lived

Rejoice! Beloved in your selves

Let your souls find pleasure in your lives

Know ye any evil from the dirt brown come?

Or any water bitter from the spring down fall?

Love your eyes, your hands and your body

Though fore bound, have come undone

Black or brown rejoice

For the Lord knows truly those that are his own.

Lagos Morning

My body tells me which direction to go and I go.

Like a zombie I walk through the streets in the dead of the night, in the wake of the morning…

I'm torn in my mind.

How did I get here? I ask myself.

My mind is numb, my body unfeeling.

I can't remember where I'm coming from or where I'm going.

Life is unknown to me, uncharted waters.

How did I get here? I ask myself again.

With the madding crowd I move. Like a ship on troubled waters I tremble.

I'm living in an illusion. A world unreal.

Time and space elude my mind.

The shards of glass from my broken heart prod me and pierce me deeper.

There is an ache in my heart that won't go away.

The pain overwhelms me. This hollow I feel inside must be filled, mended and made whole.

It's the only way…