Published May 1, 2022
by Elizabeth Anna Hanai
(Mwanza, Tanzania)
The crowd roared and their voices, a thunder.
Into her ears they swarmed,
Flying into a castle that once belonged to her ,
They had keys to the front door,
And those of the backdoor,
With might and thumps,
They sent their arrows flying across her guarded walls,
One by one,
Biting off the rhythm of her chords,
They used the element of surprise,
She was losing her own battle, her own land,
And into a dark hole,
She scurried.
Walking into the woods ,
She sung of the great meadows that stood high to reach the mountains that seem to sunk into valleys painted in black,
There she found sanctuary.
Suddenly, she felt cornered with nowhere else to go,
No more places to hide,
She had to fight back,
Against what she thought was might
Rather than foggy frogs dressed in boots.
Then it hit her,
They didn't have a key to the side doors.
Her eyes, still wide open only for her to go through,
A note to her brain, she stuck on the wall beside a stool, that said,
"No more of the voices, no more of the thunder
A taste of freedom for my soul.
And to the weaknesses on my back
Let's come together and dine."
Biography
Elizabeth Anna Hanai is a Tanzanian medical student, a self-taught author, and poet.
During her first secondary school years she met a friend that inspired her to write and hasn't stopped since.
Her work draws from feelings of fear, heartbreak, and love and addresses themes of self love, courage, strength, and feminism.
This poem is included in Poetry World #3, published in the Wax Poetry and Art Library.
Previously published in Axil Poetry and Art:
Mistress Mary
by Ana Nova Arayal
Axil Poetry and Art is part of the Wax Poetry and Art Network.
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