Mother Sonia

Thank you for paving the way

For Black Woman poets

Like me

You see

You, like Ogun, cleared the way

For us to lyrically bite down

With teeth you helped to sharpen

Make pages bleed the sorrows we transcribe through our pens

Mother Sonia

You looked like the sun

Hiding behind those grey locs

82 years young

To remind us that it is only our soul that is infinite

It will keep our Black skin from cracking

When Amerika is whipping us in broad daylight

Your.. Your.. Your

Stuttering.. stu-tt-tering

Blurred anything in my peripheral view

All I could see was you

All I could feel were your words

On that stage

As you wept

Your powers formed a sun storm

You were the sun crying

Your rain drops fell on to my face and out of my eyes

I greeted you "As-salamu alaykum"

Peace be upon you

Knocked elbows

Like members of a kin finally reunited

Touching elbows to cultivate

The kin-etic energy of our foremothers

You walking

Small framed

Sun Goddess

Blessed my artistic journey

With a higher ray of sunlight

Tears falling down my face

In awe

disbelief

joy

How can I

Truly be witnessing a woman who lived

Through the civil war upon our us in the 60's & 70's

Witnessed us die and imprisoned in the 80's till this very day

And watch the resurrection of a movement in the 2000's

Yet stand in front me

Telling me

And the other sun-faced women in the audience

To resist

It was as if this whole time she was speaking through my chest

I know that

all I know and feel

Is knowledge and feelings that originate before me

Before my time

Her words transmitted from her mouth

Out back into my lap

Through you, Sonia, I see what I could be

Through you I see what I ought to be

Looking at you was an honor

A textbook morphed into a being

Wrapped my entire Black Studies degree into a reality

A testament of my legacy

My legacy of resiliency

My ability to draw the blood and

the sweat of my foremothers

Into my pen

To write

As my weapon of resistance