I’ve long believed that my name would sit comfortablyin sentences that began with 'my wife'. I taught myself patience.Practiced how to be soft,even though I’ve never been good at it. My flaws,I learnt to edit them slowly.To work on them,like somehow I thought these were the missing pieces. I showed up, whole.In my nakedness. Then… Continue reading Let Me Be the Girl You Bed Tonight
Category: Poems
Poetry | Poems | Spoken Words
Becoming
When you see her, tell her her daughter is tired but standing.Tell her the nights are long,and sometimes morning arrives without answers,but her child still wakes up hopeful. Tell her she is gratefulfor the hands that have held her through this season.She feels them every day,even when guilt dances on her faceand she doesn’t know… Continue reading Becoming
Still
The walls refuse to utter a word.No space to argue.Nothing to interrupt my thoughts.Just the clock moving slowly,and the light staying loyal. The couch remembers my weight.Nothing here asks me to speak.I sit bothered by the words left hanging,their silence heavier than sound. I fold anger into my handsand sit on it so it doesn’t… Continue reading Still
Closure – The Poem
Finally, my heart exhaled.A long breath she had been holding since love first taught her how to wait.Last night she sat with memories,looked them straight in the eye without fear,and asked them to speak.For a long time, I kept my heart on a shelf,tucked away with questions that refused to sleep.She wondered if love was… Continue reading Closure – The Poem
The Load
This load.Sometimes it takes up all the space in the room.It sits next to you, follows you around,refusing to be left behinduntil you start believing you're the only onebarely holding it together.This load,It breaks you until pain feels important.It walks around the room like it owns the place.For a moment,You don’t think about the woman… Continue reading The Load
Pieces of You
Some things you can’t burynot even in the pits of helland pretend they aren’t there. Like that piece of youyou want to rip offlike Dr. Jekyll trying to kill Hyde,put it aside,and act like it was never part of you. Because truth be told,it still lives somewhere.It’s just dormant.Quiet even. And with the slightest trigger,it… Continue reading Pieces of You
Borrowed Wood
Some questions sound harmlessbecause they arrive dressed in curiosity,wearing a smile.Like asking what we bring to the table,as if we are plates,as if our worth only arrivescarrying a lid.The loud voices.The heavy expectations.I want a woman who cooks,who listens,who heals,who bends,who opens her bodylike a door that never creaks.They want a mother,a love,a counselor,a wife,and… Continue reading Borrowed Wood
Keep Going
It’s an hour to midnight.A new year is here.Keep going.Don’t stop.In a world full of expectations,my wish for you is simple,keep going.Keep going as you step into this new year.No pressure.No list.Just breath in your lungsand a heart that still hopes,even in silence.Keep going even when your resolutions fade by February,when the pages meant to… Continue reading Keep Going
My Christmas Poem
I didn’t want to post this on Christmas Day and sound like I lacked the Christmas cheer. So this Christmas poem came a little late. It’s for those who were going through something. You all know I am big on healing through poetry, and while many of us were celebrating and carrying joy in our… Continue reading My Christmas Poem
I am Okay
Here’s the thing about choices,it’s a quiet kind of freedom.We make choices, sometimes wrong ones,because that’s how the world names them.And then we carry the shame like a lifetime sentence. I refuse to live there.I refuse to let guilt become a room I sleep in. I chose you.I chose to let you inside me,and I… Continue reading I am Okay
Nancy Atieno's Notes 