Dear Mama,
I am beginning this letter, but l do not know where to start.
Mama, do you know l feel like a beast trapped in human form?
Mama, am l still ugly?
There are some who have said to me
I am beautiful, but in the veil of my mind
I have searched for the meaning behind their courtesy call.
Oh, Mama, how I yearn to know the truth!
How can so many voices sing such falsities?"
Mama, you never told me l was beautiful!
I have wondered, why?
My mind was a landfill, my soul an open sore.
If only you had whispered those words, nurturing my heart like a seedling in the soil.
Oh, Mama! Their honeyed words were poison dripping as honey
filling my starving heart with false hope.
And Mama, one more thing, You never told me you loved me.
Mama, had you sung a different lullaby, woven in the rainbow of love,
my heart would not have been so fragile.
But the clock has wound to its final chime.
Mama,
these scars have become
my armour,
forged from wounds of the past
that have once bound me.
Mama,
do not weep for the flower
that withered in the cold,
for I have bloomed anew
despite the frost of the past
My heart is no longer a wasteland,
but an adenium-nourished
by the sunlight of grace.
I have found my own beauty.
And in my write, I found me right.
Dear Mama.
Nana Amma Adomaa Abrefa is a Ghanaian poet and teacher whose work has been featured in prestigious literary journals such as Failed Haiku, Africa Haiku Network, Write- The Anthology, and Women Poets: Within and Beyond Shores. Her poetry spans a wide range of forms and themes and explores the complexities of human experience with an evocative and intimate voice. Her work is marked by fearless honesty, vivid imagery, and an unwavering commitment to the human spirit. In her poetry, she uses words as a tool for empowerment, tackling themes of identity and struggle with fierce determination and raw emotion.
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