By Migwi Mwangi
Art by Camille Yang
i want to tell you something
i want to tell you something because you are my friend
and friends, tell each other things:
i am starting to look more and more like my mother, Nyina
wa Muthoni
i relaxed my hair
i braided it
i had my ears pierced
i even got those tiny quiet black earrings she liked
my back, like hers, hunched but still athletic
my high cheekbones sunburned and
the gap between my teeth
like her, i have a tonne of debt
i can only hope to die,
as she did
and as she lived —
quietly
maybe,
if i act more like her
and i work hard, really hard,
i could make this body hers
the most tender and strongest person i ever knew,
the body and image of a goddess
I could be her
I could be my own mother