Mama by Emi Mahmoud
I was walking down the street when a man stopped me and said, Hey yo sistah, you from the motherland? Because my skin is a shade too deep not to have come from foreign soil Because this garment on my head screams Africa Because my body is a beacon calling everybody to come flock to the motherland I said, I’m Sudanese, why? He says, ‘cause you got a little bit of flavor in you, I’m just admiring what your mama gave you Let me tell you something about my mama She can reduce a man to tattered flesh without so much as blinking Her words fester beneath your skin and the whole time, You won’t be able to stop cradling her eyes. My mama is a woman, flawless and formidable in the same step. Woman walks into a warzone and has warriors cowering at her feet My mama carries all of us in her body, on her face, in her blood and Blood is no good once you let it loose So she always holds us close. When I was 7, she cradled bullets in the billows of her robes. That same night, she taught me how to g