Reyna with the kids in Fiamah, Monrovia, Liberia

Friday, October 5, 2012

i am a girl

for my Fiamah girls



i am a girl
Not a piece of property
Not your toy, not your baby doll
You will not be my sugar daddy

i am a girl
I don’t want to be initiated
Mutilated, confiscated, separated
I want to be educated

i am a girl
I don’t want to be married, or a mama
At least not yet
Until I find my prince
Not some pimp who promises to pay my school fees
Or help me with the rent
As long as I am pleasing him

i am a girl
Go pick on someone your own size
I need to breathe
To play, to dream
To know that I can be whatever I want to be
Not what or who you say

i am a girl
And right now a woman rules my country
A woman who was once a girl
Who did not let herself be defined by others
Who rose above and made history
So being a girl is not such a bad thing to be
You see

i am a girl
I have a hope and a future
I have my place in this society
And it is not beside you
Its in a classroom, at a desk
Being a star student in school
Because that saying that girls rule the world?
I am here to prove that its still true
i am a girl