BY GLORIA O’KOYE

Dear children,

Please don’t rush to grow up.

Enjoy every single moment of your peace

Free from troubles,

Like the saplings that have patience to outgrow

The forest beds into the canopy

When it is their time.

Sweet babies

Value every second of playing,

Ignore negative remarks.

Attempting to quicken the pace of growing

Up, into a world that

Doesn’t want innocence to be the focus.

Lessons will learn in time,

In its own pace,

Milestones will be reach just at the nick of

Time.

No need to compare how fast or slow,

All shall be accomplished in fate.

Please enjoy your youth

Little ones.

Life will not halt or rewind,

Expanding like the stars we cannot see

With naked eyes.

Memories are like snowflakes

Unique to individuals,

Sometimes aging will make them melt

Before you can relish their designs.

Little ones

Don’t rush to grow up.

Enjoy the carefree world

Before reality strikes.

Youthful laughters are the medicine

During harsher times.

BY GLORIA O’KOYE

Like eaglets preparing to fly

Outgrowing the nest and its parents,

There is always a time

To say goodbye.

Like bear cubs learning to hunt, fish

Forage and scavenge.

Fending off danger on their own,

There is always a time

To say goodbye.

Like a baby leaving the comfort of the womb,

Praying for a peaceful transition from a child

To adulthood.

To witness the world from different perspectives,

Innocence is not a guarantee with age.

Even with luck

The terrors of the world will soak

And force eyes to open.

No one is safe.

Saying goodbyes to life as we know it,

For the times this world will continue to evolve.

Languages and cultures will continue to fight to exist,

Extinction of ancestral knowledge

Is always around the corner.

Newer generations are passed down the torch

Only they know what they can add and subtract from traditions.

Welcoming and goodbyes to what works in a society

Without destroying generations of knowledge and spiritual wealth.

Saying goodbyes to grief-stricken realities

Relearning to have a childlike faith.

Saying goodbyes to hesitation,

No more being afraid.

Goodbyes and let go

It is not always a bad thing.

BY GLORIA OKOYE

“I stand with the brothers and sisters out in Edmonton, for the incognito meeting about removing the drums out of the women’s institutions across Turtle Island.”

The rhythm of the drums

Beats to the melodies sung by Earth

Herself.

Singing songs for her offsprings

Creations big and small

As she rotates with her galactic body,

A speck of the universe’s creation itself.

Her heartbeats are mimic into forms

Of miniature creations of songs.

Ceremonies and gatherings

That the wisdom is passed on

From generations,

The elders share amongst all.

In the depths of the belly of the beast,

Brothers and sisters united for years to bring traditions inside

As the sounds are the symbol of life

And hope in a place far away

From everything surrounding,

A world that continues to move on.

Forgetting everything on the other side of

The wall.

For years all was well

Till the root of all evil flourished

Intertwining with roots that were thriving,

Established before greed.

Now all are at risk of combusting into an

Inferno,

Collateral damage like the black holes

Consuming the molecules of hope.

Decision making with groups made

Of contracted beings

That will act to save and rise their positions

No matter which foundations get destroyed.

Outside world wouldn’t bat an eyelash

As it doesn’t concern them at the current state.

Only the cracks will seep of residual damage would people know.

But by then it would be too late.