Delight Chilegide Olumati

A hand to hold mine.
A voice to speak over mine.
A space to call safe.
A footprint to follow.

These and countless others are now part of
who I have become.

Why should life teach us all one lesson
when it can teach one and have others learn from?
Why should bad experience replace the air
I breathe just in order for me to learn?
Why didn’t the three others not cut this part of the family tree?

I am.
I have always wanted for me—therefore, I am.

I am.
I have always cried about—therefore, I am.

I am.
I have always prayed to have—therefore, I am.

My mother’s hands aren’t so big as to hold my hopes, ideas
and different trials at reaching purpose.
So everytime she attempts to get it right,
I found a way to slip off her watch.

She’s always wanted to be for me what she needed.
I have watched her and I know now,
that she was just that little girl afterall.

She is.
She’s always wanted for her children—therefore, I am.