Akua Tsetsewaa Yawson
It is with us from the second we make our first cry.
While we struggle to breathe and find our bearing.
It finds us in the form of our mother’s bosom
and the sweet yet foreign taste of her breasts.
While we struggle to grasp the concept of a new place,
with foreign faces and foreign sounds,
it finds us once more in a hug or a voice, in coo’s and ah’s
from the lips of those who hold us close.
It never leaves us, this trepid feeling,
it’ll never leave us, this thing called warmth.
It is in us and in them, the people we select to take part
in our lives. It’s present as a vortex of emotions,
comforting yet terrifying, painful yet amusing,
all at the same time. And when we meet that one person
who speaks a lingua only our heart comprehends.
it engulfs our entire being in delight, fear and love, all at once.
And when that lingua stops being so fluent,
the feeling creeps back in, taking over every fibre of our being
with feelings of hurt, uncertainty and sometimes, relief.
It never leaves us, this trepid feeling,
it’ll never leave us, this feeling called warmth.
We are looking back, our lives unrolling and rewinding,
with plot twists we’ve become all too familiar with.
Every decision and missed opportunity fills our heart
with an all too familiar feeling, taking up a plethora of roles
from fulfilment to regret; from love to hatred.
Looking ahead we smile, not because our days were the most colorful,
but because we’re ready to embrace the final version of this feeling,
knowing we survived all its other representations.
It never leaves us, this trepid feeling,
it’ll never leave us, this sensation called warmth.
Akua Tsetsewaa Yawson is an Architecture Master’s graduate, a blogger and content creator. Engaged in the varying aspects of creative writing, Tsetsewaa channels all thoughts into her blog, tsetsewaa.com, a personal space where poetry meets prose in a bid to change the typical African narrative with regards to literature. Tsetsewaa is an ambassador for tea and all things chocolate. She spends a lot of her time reading, creating engaging graphics on her social media pages, or creating IGTV videos on past personal experiences and all things Architecture.