Once I understood my place in the world, by Elizabeth Onsuko

Once I understood my place in the world,

 

I moved freely about it

                        though it was small and dark,

lit only by my violet aura,

                        and there I tended a slender hope

that had sprouted out of nothing,

                        pulling moisture from my breath

while yearning upwards toward

                        a fantasy of the sun,

and like this it lived contentedly,

                        which contented me,

for its existence was evidence

                        I was capable of growing something

men couldn’t see

                        or take from me.