All in a name

Letter to the reader:

This poem explores a young girl torn from her innocence and heritage, struggling to find her identity in a world that doesn’t embrace her true self. Through pain and transformation, she evolves into a strong woman, rooted in faith and guided by a higher purpose, ultimately reclaiming her identity in Him.

A child taken from her innocence, 

A child taken before her growth was given.

A name meaning what she needs so dearly.

A mother who is staunch, 

Strong 

A second generation from a land so far from the accent I hold in my tongue. 

Skin that burns in the sun, 

of the land she was raised on,

Skin that takes hours to color, 

in lands unknown to her safety.

Skin that's heritage killed thousands of people.

A man met whose skin is so opposite, 

Yet the entwining of unity 

creates a future, 

the past kept so separate. 

A little girl desperate to find identity,

she hides behind names 

unknown to her loved ones, 

Veiled behind a mask of change,

features reshaped beyond recall.

A passport portrait, now a stranger—

a surgeon’s note the only proof

that she is who she used to be.

A little girl who needed a savior,

so long ago.

A little girl who sought love, 

in places now so dead to her, 

so far away.

A little girl who has been reborn,

into the strong woman 

She looks up too every day.

A woman who has friends,

who call at 3am to confide. 

A woman who has a backbone,

that she stands on 

and cries out each day 

to a savior for guidance.

As the GPS she was following

took her down a path now,

in the rearview mirror. 

She calls herself a little girl.

She strives for excellence,

in worlds that ‘Not Achieves’ 

are found to be the standard.

Her standard is kingdom, 

her standard is Him 

and her identity is IN Him.