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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