Child
When I get the courage
When I am ready and brave
To bring you in a world
With too many potholes
And frolicking leaders
I want to make sure
You are strong and ready
For the furrowed ride
I will keep you safe for now
Wrapped in my scared womb
Only when I am ready
Will I birth you freely
Like the way this poetry flows from my tongue
When you get here
I mean if you get here
I imagine the joy of your small
Cute smiles and
Your tiny hands curling
Into little adorable fists
Incapable of hurting no one
Then slowly opening like
The petals of a beautiful rose
I imagine in your sleep
You will dream of happy things
And i will watch you stretch
Your tiny limbs
Saying ‘when I grow up I wanna be…
better than mummy’
Like the words flowing from my tongue
You will wear many names of your choice
For I want to give you that freedom from birth
With the easiness of a happy child’s laughter
To make your own choices beginning with your name
Without me breathing down my failed dreams
On you
Child
I want you to be proud in your skin
So comfortable no one can convince you otherwise
Be weary of brain-pickers i would say
Those who will pick on your brains with shamboks
Like they did on the backs of grandma
In the cotton plantations
You will be gifted with brawn
But child that does not mean you are to be a slave
And when you are old like these locks
Tying my world together, at 8
I want your world to be open
Full of limitless possibility
I want you to be brave
Just like me when I bring into this world
To labour for your own happiness
To strive to cut the fences, prejudices
Around the skin you will unashamedly be proud of
My child I seek you to find
All-weather wings
A heart as warm
I want you to find love
Give love
And
Above all, I want you to be you

I will keep you safe for now

Wrapped in my scared womb

Safe from the stale promise of democracy

misfired bullets of hatred

pelting my ears from the radio relentlessly

Safe from circus governments of disunity

pawning our rights & freedoms

like zhing-zhong products at the flea market

Only when I am ready

Will I birth you freely

Like the way this poetry flows…