I sit in the comfort of my home:

a creative space

a free space

a safe space

where I can be anything I want:

poet, painter, teacher, thinker

Woman.

a Woman on the loose

I stumble over books

often falling in love w/

Audre Lorde & Maya Angelou

Alice Walker & Giovanni

Lucille Clifton & Margaret Walker

Zora Neale Hurston & Emecheta

Sonia Sanchez & Toni Morrison

Elaine Brown & June Jordan

& if we are the ones we have been waiting for

how long will it take us to save all of you

 

234

black Girl children

whose will to learn

offends your brothers?

 

I sit in the comfort of my home

free to be anything I want

wondering if I have but a speck

of your courage

 

you 234

pushed to the edge of a Nigeria

whose sons have forgotten you are the rim of the world

your Mothers & Grandmothers are their beginning

Her beautiful black body

once their food & lodging

their resting place

 

& I wonder if you, too, will forget

who you are

 

will you forget

you are the manifestations

of Harriet, Sojourner, & Winnie?

 

will you forget

the songs you sang

the poems you recited

the prayers you chanted in a school that affirmed your humanity?

 

will you forget

Allah is a loving God

who has not forgotten you?

 

I sit in the comfort of my home

being creative

being free

being in a safety

where I can think of you

 

234 black Girl children

 

& write this poem

& be whatever I want to be

& praise whomever I want to praise

& call Jesus, & King, & Gandhi, & Siddhartha my Lord

my Mother, my Savior

 

& I can be a human being

searching for intelligence

in books

in nature

in me

searching for intelligence

in you

 

234 black Girl children

 

I sit in the comfort of my home

praying for your safety

hoping for your forgiveness

& loving Nigeria w/a fire intended to bring you home.