SHE IS FIVE

*This poem was written for AWiB’s 5th year celebration and performed at the annual leadership forum on May 7th, 2015.
Birth
To life she came on an April day
Five years ago
Not too far from this day
The fields were thirsty
The meadows hungry
Soils parched and cracked
Ready to soak in moisture
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She came with the rainfall
Infused with nourishment
Her stage became the compost
For ideas to sprout
Hidden voices to power out
Growth
She is of the rainforest
Her nature cannot survive a desert
Her thoughts so foreign
Her ways so different
Change her form to suit the environment?
Or challenge mindsets to embrace her experiment?
Daring spirits saw her potential
And invested in her merriment
Frightened ones keenly awaited her impairment
But rise she did
And grow she would
Despite all those hungry for her detriment
Maturation
Now she has blossomed
Now she has bloomed
She gathers
She challenges
She celebrates
She shares
She inspires
Month to month the sun radiates
Her petals and leaves extend skyward
She has no time for dragging
Her mobility is onward
Propelled forward
Chin up
Gaze fixed
She is about transforming leaders
And creating vision readers
And driven idea breeders
She is a platform for those who dare
Step away from their comfort zone
And stand bare
For those who wish to push
Down their comfort covers
And
Those who will to transform
First themselves
and then their neighbors
She is a platform rising
And her likes are spreading and sprouting
She is Five and still growing!
~~
Billene Seyoum also blogs at www.africanfeminism.com