Anny

“You apologize for
how you carry your
mother's loneliness
quietly
between your teeth.

You apologize for
how you carry your
father's sins
inside your blood.

You forgot
how to carry yourself
away for the histories
that threatens to break you
open, leaving you with grief
and unbearable weight of emptiness.

Tell me, apart from the sadness
thick as smog
living inside your chest
tell me the last time
you held your face
and saw love
staring back at you.

How does destroying yourself prove your worth to others?”
― Ijeoma Umebinyuo, Questions for Ada

“Healing comes in waves
and maybe today
the wave hits the rocks
and that's ok,
that's ok, darling
you are still healing
you are still healing.”
― Ijeoma Umebinyuo, Questions for Ada

“The problem was
you kept waiting for another
to call you powerful.

You naively believed men like him
were capable of loving
women who make
crowns for thorns.

The problem was
You loved him so shamelessly,
even his lies became holy.”
― Ijeoma Umebinyuo, Questions for Ada

“Beneath it all
I know
you are made of soft wind
and calm flowing water
but
on days when
you become strong wind
and crashing waves
be
rest assured
you did not
become less of you

do not become the woman
apologizing for days
when she has thorns
from the harshness
of the world.”
― Ijeoma Umebinyuo, Questions for Ada