Stay with Me

by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀

If the burden is too much and stays too long, even love bends, cracks, comes close to breaking and sometimes does break. But even when it’s in a thousand pieces around your feet, that doesn’t mean it’s no longer love.

🥺

“Sweetie…” “Hold it. Just hold it there. Please don’t sweetie me again this morning.” But I did want him to call me sweetie again, only me and no one else. I wanted him to reach across the table, hold my hand and tell me we would be all right.

These days I tell myself that is why I stretched to accommodate every new level of indignity, so that I could have someone who would look for me if I went missing.

😔

I let him go that day, even though I did not want to let him out of my sight, because a mother does not do what she wants, she does what is best for her child.