A Walking Vessel Filled With Hope Poem by Sarah Mkhonza

I walk on these pathways that lead on,
To the clues that show me new buds,
That shoot up their cropped ends soft,
Tender even to the look of the devil,
Who long lost hope in a world so mean,
That the milk teeth grow up already rooted,
In gums so painful that chewing is hell,
To a toddler that still has to believe mama,
When she offers a nipple from shriveled life.

Girls need to work and answer the call,
The buds have not come out of a fallen tree,
But stand as high like a flower rising up,
And ready to be picked with their very hands,
To end up in the hair of young girl's head.