Fighting Battles
1 Corinthians 13:13
Abide by these three
Faith, hope and love
But the greatest of all is love
Every day a part of me dies
Every day a part of me lies
As i keep fighting battles my parents never won
Fighting battles without a sword
Fighting battles with these words. “faith.”
Each day i say a prayer
As anxiety knocks on my door
And the colours red, yellow and blue
play over and over in her head “hope.”
Will this madness ever stop?
Another life lost
Another brother, friend, sister, cousin hanging
over a rope because his friends thought
he was too cool to be depressed
and nobody ever heard his cries
Another gunned down
because they fear a Black man walking
making us anything smaller than we ought to be
like we aren’t sons of this soil
withstanding the fact that BLACK LIVES MORE THAN MATTER
Each day a part of me dies
as the harbour takes away one of our girls
before she even gets to see and enjoy the seashore
And the media breaks out; #BRINGBACKOURGIRLS
Each day a part of me lies
as patriarchist ceaselessly catcalls
and i continuously act like i am partly deaf
because “Mamacita” “Holla my size” certainly ain’t my name boy
Each day a part of me lies
as we fight for equal rights
with men who bluntly refuse to be our equals
as If the word man ain’t in the word woman
Each day a part of me dies
as psycho-the-rapist
continues to walk these streets
because he needs to learn and unlearn
before he can be electrocuted because
because in today’s world justice
justice is served on these platforms
before it’s served in these chambers
Today a part of me died
because my people seem to have forgotten love
my people have become subjects
my people have been taken away from home
my people are victimised my people are hurting
My people are angry
My people are tired
My people are fighting
fighting battles our forefathers and
the fathers before them fought
Fighting systems
fighting battles that
really only “love” could overcome
I AM
I am the prodigy of Ubuntu
I am a child raised by a village
I am Uaueza of Omutombotjari
Born into the Land of the Brave
The land of great horizons
The land of the freedom fighters
and the struggle kids
The land of the ovambo damara-nama
ovaherero and the khoi-khoi brave
The land run by Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masalingi
The land where the desert meets the ocean
Abba’s Girl
Like the woman caught in adultery
I stand at the altar waiting to be stoned
to death
Feeling vulnerable, helpless
I whisper deep prayers
wondering what this famous carpenter
would do if the crowd stoned me
after all
Guilty through and through
I feel it the stench of death and slavery
Just like the prostitute who sneaked into the Pharisee’s home
And stand behind the Prince of Peace
I take a holy posture at his feet and weep
I long to bathe his feet with tears
Then dry them out with hair
To feel his forgiveness
His love
See it is the woman’s communion with the Holy Spirit
Her shouting and moaning that provides shelter against the
wild wind of her fear of God
And like the Samaritan woman at the well
I’ve been married five times, the man I’m with now Is not my husband
I’m kind of questioning this life-giving water
But, I no longer want to be thirsty
So I long for a sip
It’s by the power of her faith
that she is sanctified
because of His amazing grace
So like the woman caught in adultery
I watch as the crowd walks away one by one
removing my shame with each dusty step
I hear his beautiful voice say
Neither do I condemn you
Now go and sin no more
I am Abba’s Girl
Uaueza Kanguatjivi
Uaueza Kanguatjivi affectionately known as Poppy is a 26-year-old female born and raised in Windhoek, Namibia. She is a Triumphant College graduate who works as a journalist writing for local weekly newspaper, Confidente. She spends a lot of her free time writing and doing creative things, such as painting and drawing. Her poetry collection entitled A Place of Solace is presented here.
