Dream 

Achieve

Love

Inspire 

Resurrect 

Dream.  I want to dream a better dream, 

greater than what was given to me.

Achieve. I strive to achieve a life where 

I will look back

and have no regrets. 

A simple life of joy, peace, pride and rest. 

Love. The inner child in me wants to love others in the same way

my Father up above loves me.

Yet, my heart secretly, earnestly, yearns for the kind of love that makes it skip a beat. 

Inspire. I want to inspire the ones coming after me, the girl who harbors her own seed of hope, patiently waiting to grow. 

Resurrect. I want to resurrect others’ dead dreams like how prophet Ezekiel resurrected the dry bones in the middle of the valley. 

Tired. I tire of seeing my people in the streets, beaten down, torn down,

humanity ripped and stripped away, 

with every crushing blow of the soldiers in blue

who swore to protect us, 

defend us. 

Really?

They actually never saw us. 

saw us as people, saw us as worthy.

I don’t want to survive, 

I just need to thrive.

But at home, we, in our own spaces, 

we beat each other, not with metal batons, 

but with daggers of vitriol,

rooted in colorism, featurism, tribalism

that proceed from our mouths. 

We are all different 

and yet one of the same.

We have been broken and remain whole

whether we eat jollof rice and fufu, jerk chicken, roti, or collard greens and candied yams, 

Again, I assure you 

we are one and the same. 

Why don’t you like me for who I am?

Why won’t you love me for who I’m not?

Look. I look forward to the day where death

can finally die,

and life will surely live. 

And when that day comes, 

my Father, my Maker will say,

“Welcome home, My good and faithful servant,

Well done.”