Hey, y’all. For Day 11 of National Poetry Month, the prompt is to write a poem about a very large thing. Here’s my poem:

MAMA AFRICA

By Farah Lawal Harris

Daddy made me work thrice as hard

because I was born female, 

Nigerian and dark,

all things deemed marks against me 

in American society.

I fit into this society well,

but Motherland don’t know me well.

She hears my cries 

across oceans and seas

while she sleeps.

I awake her across the Atlantic, 

like a toddler, i’ve so many questions like:

“Mama, how you get so big 

when they treat you so small?”

She responds:

“I no dey get big. I am big.

Their behavior has nothing to do with it.

Don’t believe what you are taught from colonists.

Their globes won’t let you know 

I could eat three of their ancestors’ continent

with okra and eba 

and still have room left for dessert.”

I ask: 

“Mama, why does it feel like you’ve deserted me? 

Or I you? How come I don’t know you, 

but they ask me to speak you?”

She calls back:

“Omo, you are me and I am you. 

You have nothing to prove.”

I ask one last question:

“Mama, why are you abused 

when you’re the source of all life?”

She answers:

“Because that things they call ‘Mother’

aren’t treated right. 

Look at my mother, Earth. 

Fighting is just part of our plight. 

Stay strong, little one. 

With thrice as hard if you want, 

but never forget who you came from.”

i chew these truths like kola nuts.

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Photo by Toyin Adesanya