Submitted By: Karo Umukoro

To all wombs like incubators
wherein shapeless us took form...

To all V-openings as sphinx-like doors
which ushered us into the lights of life...

To all breasts like pitchers of milk
which quenched our dying infant thirst...

To all palms which bathed young us
in the purest and deepest sea of love
also dried our skin in the sun of kindness...

To all backs like kangaroo's pouches
which carried fragile us for a ride in joy
even in the bluest and reddest skies...

To all jelly lips of soothing passions
which kissed tears away from our frightened eyes..

To all earth's roses and lilies
who still colour lives with rainbows and beauty...

To all earth's sun
who still fire our cold days with certainty...

To all earth's moon
who still lantern our cold nights with comfort...

To all mothers of humanity...
and also to them in my hamlet
ripe to be women yet,
I dedicate this poem.

©Karo Umukoro, October 2002