Mommy,

Do you regret it?

The choice that you made all those years back

the world you knew suddenly being pulled from under you

the naitive like dust made you blind

in the old world you knew you mightve never knew my father

fate is funny that way

war you ran from sent you to the refguee camp where you met him

you thought he was just like you

thought like you

god filled like you

the devils mark was on him, your parents smelled it.

why didn't you listen to them?

what was it about him that you placed all your trust in

you leaped into marriage faith first

passport freshly stamped with refugee visa

then you had me

Do you regret it?

Having me?

I know you love me

Because I come from you so you have to

And you bare pieces of your fragmented destiny to me

through tough love and forewarnings you warn me

to be smarter than you were

to know who i will marry

if God showed you all you would pass through, would you do it again?

I don't want you to.

I think of who you couldve been. I cry for her at my altar

questioning fates hand

i and my siblings exist and your suffering is offhand

I think of who you would be

if the Kono woman could live in freetown and be free

but i know its deeper than me

Dads family

they tried to make my mommy a matyr

and im their next victim

this curse is sickening

a large family full of scorned women

who swallow their fire and quietly raise their children

tolerating the toxic tradtions they pass down to us

because -what will everyone else think?

unbeknownst to mas- elders that be

the gossipers gaze is minor

in juxtaposition to the eyes of proverbs 15:3

i noticed it after that one incident, by now its too late for both of us to escape

indentured servitute is our only option

and ill gladly serve my sentance with you

ill serve it for you

ill suffer if it means you sigh relief

you are my creator

you work till skylight to see me eat

i want to feed you

before he matyrs you,

he'll murder me.