What My Mama Told Me

What my mama told me

My mama told me to grow up

And be beautiful like our sunset,

But what she forgot to tell me 

Was to pack a gun for the world

I was growing into had men with no scruples 

And no respect for women 

So before the sunset I had packed my armour 

And these feelings of animosity I’d harbour

I paced through the streets for my harmer 

No longer anointed with purity, with nothing

To lose

The stinking attitudes and comments

Of vendors

Fueling my desire for vengeance

I sit on a bench and light up my gway 

Looks of disgust come shooting my way

I repel them with the smoke I exhale from my mouth

These people and their thoughts are of no interest 

To me

Then after a fruitless day, I drag myself home

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Written by Sinenhlanhla londiwe Meyiwa Magcaba, a depressed sexual violence survivor and aspiring writer who wants to change the black communities beliefs and norms explicitly through her writings