Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth

by Warsan Shire

I did not beg him to stay because I was begging God that he would not leave.

I was speaking with a good friend about love and its relationship to pride. We were listening to ‘love is stronger than pride’ by Sade, (the anthem for softening the hearts of stubborn women). We discussed our shared refusal to beg a man. Later when I was alone, I wrote this.