Questions for Ada

by Ijeoma Umebinyuo

You must remember to hold yourself on days that feel so empty the pain echoes. You are a woman, a vast land filled with holy cities.

You must learn how to do all these things and live through the day without hurting yourself.

do not become the woman apologizing for days when she has thorns from the harshness of the world.

I am woman enough to know you do not force womanhood out of girls That you do not shame the bodies of girls, forcing them to carry themselves like an apology, to hold sorry on their lips

She was always a wildflower— even her sadness, like water, helped her grow.

because a child given darkness as a gift cannot comprehend how to let the sun in without thinking it would take from her again.