poem

*Lost Girl, Changing Soil* *Paragraph 1: The Point* The point isn’t that she’s lost. It’s that she’s changing in a place that wants her to stay the same. Red soil under her feet, gogo’s stories in her ears, but her mind is somewhere past the hills. She’s lost because she’s outgrowing the map everyone gave her. *Paragraph 2: The Change* Change is quiet in the village. It looks like her fetching water slower because she’s thinking. It looks like her asking “why” when no one else does. It looks like loving the wedding songs and still wanting more than marriage and fields. She’s not disrespecting culture — she’s expanding it to fit her. *Paragraph 3: The Becoming* So she sits by the river and lets the change move through her. She’s in-between: village girl, future woman, both at once. Lost right now, ja. But lost is just the space before you find a new road. And she’s building hers.