Dear Daughter

Filed Under: Artists Work, Artists Works, Bars, care, Children, Emotional, hope, Life, loudink poetry, love, Poems, Queen, Zambia, zambian writers

by Maxwell Nkandu

 

Dear daughter

Let me tell you

When you first entered into this world

And laid in my arms

My one and only thought was to love you

And keep you safe from harm

 

And as they cut that cord from the submerged world

That for 9 months you had come to know as your home

I felt the pressure of two blades piercing the arteries of my heart

And cutting deep within my soul.

 

The first blade, releasing a flood of tears

And emotion leaving me unable to contain my experience of this loves’ boundless ocean

But then the second blade,

It severed my ties with this moment of pure bliss for just long enough

To make me wish that you were not a girl

 

Not because I did not love you as if a morning sun had just risen

But because this world casts doubt and darkness on you

Focusing on your blemishes and scars and not on your radiance among the stars

But then I saw that boundlessness in your eyes

Fields of promise with no horizon, colorful and endless skies

 

I came to my senses and felt compelled to write you this poem,

You will be you

Your courage will inspire mankind

You will be the architect of your own who, where, how, what and when

Your voice will transform this dusty earth

Because the damsel in this dress is not a damsel in distress

Because every single atom in your body is formed from the very rib of greatness.

You are not vestigial or a princess, you are a queen, you’re an empress

Through the prism of your intellect your light will scatter far and wide

This world will do all it can to reduce you to an optical illusion of skin, hair and measurements

But you will unveil this delusion setting many new precedents.

 

The same world that says mind over matter will claim that your mind doesn’t matter

And that you should be married

And I will tell you the same

Get married.

Be married.

Be married to your dreams,

Don’t let anyone ever take away your steam,

You will always rise to the top just like cream

 

You are all that and more.

One day my time on this earth will come to an end

And I will be forever proud that I had you

That you are my daughter.

 

My daughter, you are the seed, the soil, the husk, the rain, the sun and the moon,

Let no one tell you differently

You are you and that is all you ever need be

You have no idea the amazing things you’re destined to do

You are God’s master piece so don’t you ever settle for less