Nyina Wa

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