must I live in the dark until I am dead
until the memory of me is all but forgotten
must I pay penance to the ones I failed to save
Oh my mother, my mother, my darling angel mother
take me away
Look at me with eyes that forgive, eyes that remember your little Daryushka
I tried mama
but against the evil, I was but a child raging at the heavens
I was a dung beetle raising my arms to the descending foot of a boot
I was but a weed in the Angara, mimicking the larch in the pasture
they came with fire mama
they came with orders we scarce understood
But understand we did that our time was up
our lives as they were had been weighed against a bridge mama
Against electricity and money mama
And we had lost
We have lost
So here I am mama, muwala wo Katasi
muwala wo Patti
taata aliwa? Where is taata? Where am I? Nze ani?
Oh, the fog is concrete, mama.
we are of the past and we are being forgotten
we are of history that is being erased
will we be remembered as neanderthals
neanderthals who dared believe in our past
the past a living memory with no place in the present
Ask something of me, mama
Ask me to defend losing all we ever knew
Ask me to rationalise the loss of everything
Ask,
and know that this old body failed
Failed to live in a world that asked it to shatter
a world that demanded that to survive,
It must drink waters steeped with your bones
A mother and child enjoy a day at a park. Nairobi, Kenya. ©Sarah Waiswa
A portrait of a mother and daughter. Republic of Chad. *Photographer Unknown*
Two girls all dressed up for Tabaski pose for a portrait. Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso. ©Jessica Antola