Amina: A Farewell or A Goodbye

Just flipping through my past writings and find this poem I wrote last year when the news of migrants drowning in Mediterranean Seas across Lybia en route Italy went viral. I remembered Amina, a friend, who had gone in search of better life in Europe through this same means but we had yet to hear from her. I hope you enjoy it and learn as well.

---

AMINA:
Take me to Europe
the land they said is our hope.
Take me to Europe
out of my ancestor’s land
away from my mother’s grasp
far from my freedom.
O, take me to Europe
on the blue sea across Libya
stack me among hundreds in a boat of conveyance
let them press my lofty breast
as we sail the waters that has devoured many
on their journey like mine.

Retreat me not for my mind is made up,
to this course I've saved my earnings
to pay my way in a struggle
out of the known to the unknown.

(Three Years After)
YEMI:
Amina, ‘farewell' was the greeting you bade me
when you began your journey of death
has it become a goodbye?
I await your hopeful words
from the land they said is our hope.
I yearn to hear your wilderness stories
on your way to Libya.
Amina! My ears are itching
to hear that fishes couldn’t feed
on your bright brain in the Mediterranean.
Or, have you been sold like your progenitors
to appease the sensual urge of your predators?

Your Mama’s face tells of the horror of motherhood
when her only daughter disappears to thin air.
She tries hard to hide the agony that lay beneath her smiles
but they lay bare before my eyes each time I saw her.

Come, Amina, my friend,
that your Mama’s smile may be a joyful one once again.

Images Source: Aljazera