Touch your shoulders.

Feel the weight we bear together,

Each abasa, a testament to resilience.

Sisters, we hold each other up,

Shoulders squared against the storm.

Touch your hair,

Your crown, your halo.

Every strand a story,

Twisting, coiling, dancing

The roots of which run deep into a lineage of queens, who a long time ago built economies out of the pockets of their cornrows

Majestic, fierce, unbowed.

Touch your stretch marks,

The waves of the sea imprinted on your skin.

A recoiling delicacy

Like traces in the Sahara’s sands,

Each mark a journey through time,

The very testament that your body just like your soul broke free from the captivity of a small vessel

You see the bumps and lumps of the earth, hills and mountains and valleys that is how your body is

Well rounded with the right proportions and patterns

The fabric of the earth and all it asks for is touch

Touch your scars,

The quiet tattoos of survival.

The evidence of your defiance,

The symbol of the courage you are,

Reborn, renewed, relentless.

Touch your sisters,

Feel the connection,

The Bluetooth of beating hearts

Our discerning hearts that automatically remember that, hey

I know this beat, you beat just like me

Awww

In essence, we need need a touch of each other

A touch of love to awaken the light we are in this tunnel called life

Yes sister we are woven together by the threads of our shared existence

And with your touch you save my life

Winniefred F. Gbemuotor