Youth Poet Celebrates a “Sacred Woman”
We take a look at life in Detroit, as seen through the eyes of local youth poet Arzelia Williams.
This Sunday is Mother’s Day. Motherhood is particularly significant in the city of Detroit, where about 60 percent of households with children are headed by a single woman. As part of WDET’s new series looking at life in Detroit as seen through the eyes of local youth poets, we hear from high school junior Arzelia Williams. She tells us about being raised by three women; her mother, her grandmother, and her great-grandmother.
Sacred Woman
By: Arzelia Williams
Take away the woman
who helped her mother make sweetwater cornbread
on a hot stove in the deep south
And you take away the woman
who pulled stems from fresh picked greens
breaking them ever so gently.
Take away the woman who nurtured every child’s wound
wiping away dirt specks and shattered glass
bandaging heartache with love
And you take away the woman
who’s hips swayed rhythmically
with every humming tune.
Take away the woman
that has rocked cranky babies
to soothe crying
she kisses your forehead with enough force
that the smell of lilac
swings freely with every breath.
Take away the woman
whose hands ached
with every stroke of a finger
as she swept away tears.
If you take away this woman
you take away every neighborhood child
she has fed from bread crumbs
Filling their minds and their stomachs
before anyone of them knew about a woman
whose name is Momma to everyone.
Arzelia Williams is a poet with the Citywide Poets with the InsideOut Literary Arts Project. She spoke with WDET’s Laura Weber-Davis.
— Laura Weber-Davis
