What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky

by Lesley Nneka Arimah

And he should chastise the girl, he knows that, but she is his brightest ember and he would not have her dimmed.

This is the first time the girl becomes aware that the world requires something other than what she is.

Before she grows cautious under the mothering of a woman who loves but cannot comprehend her. Before she quiets in a country that rewards her brand of boldness, in her black of body, with an incredulous fascination that makes her put it away.

It would never occur to her that mud daughters needed coddling, too.