Poem of the Week: Pages

Ma Mere n'a Jamais eu des ailes 
(My momma never had wings)  

  

  

Ma Mere n'a Jamais eu des ailes

My momma never had wings

But she could tap dance on hurricanes

And played poker with death

She couldn't teach me how to be a good man

But taught me how to be a good human being

How to sit up right, stand up straight, walk tall, face forward

Be proud of who you are, aint much God left in this world

But treat the world like there's still plenty God left in you

Ma Mere n'a Jamais eu des ailes

But she's always had this global warming smile

Told me to love only a woman

who could melt the polar ice caps of your past

Sat me down one day and exclaimed

"you better treat a woman as you would treat me, because if you don't

I will be on the next plane to slap you back into this country,

You are a Cameroonian man, we do not do that shit"

My mother

just said

"Shit."

But then she continued,

beware of the tempting ballad of Jazzy Belles

With Tuba lips, trombone legs and a bass line

That could turn any man into a crooked song

So make sure to never sleep with no one else's bones

but your own.

My momma never had wings

She believed if you try too hard to reach for the sun

You will end up in flames. Do not be a handsome shadow of Icarus...sun

Learn how to stay grounded...sun

Teach trees about their roots, and never give the world your tears

Only smiles gift-wrapped in forgiveness

Cuz Mama said, a "Hater"...is just a person with their "Heart" all jumbled up.

Their self worth drowning in a sea of simulation

turning the oceans in their chests, into puddles of insecurities.

Because those who show you no love, 

are usually the ones who need to see it the most

Ma Mere n'a Jamais eu des ailes

My momma never had wings

But damn she could fly

Could care less about gravity

When she could bend space and time between her fingertips

She wears the fabric of the universe like a second skin.

Her first, being her will to always survive.

 

-Pages

 

Used by permission.

PAGES is a wordsmith residing in the D.C. metropolitan area, but originally from Cameroon, Africa. His features have included The Kennedy Center, colleges and universities such as Columbia University, & BETJ Lyric Café. He has shared stages with Ainsley Burrows and Oveous Maximus, and opened for Andrea Gibson, Raheem DeVaughn, Chrisette Michelle, & Afrika Bambaata, to name a few. Pages is also founder and co-president of Da Movement Poetz, a performance based arts group geared towards reaching young adults via the arts. In addition to winning multiple local slams, he is the 2010 & 2012 DC Grand Slam Champion, two-time member of the Busboys and Poets DC Slam Team & Beltway Slam Team, and he co-hosts GraffitiDC, one of D.C.’s premier slam series presented by Beny Blaq Entertainment. Currently, if he is not somewhere rocking a stage, Pages works as a creative writing teacher and leads workshops throughout various universities, and elementary to high schools as a Teaching Artist for Split This Rock.  

Please feel free to forward Split This Rock Poem of the Week widely. We just ask you to include all of the information in this email, including this request. Thanks!

If you are interested in reading past poems of the week, feel free to visit the blog archive.