A Poem For My Daughter

You are my Sunshine
The only thing that I feel I ever did right in this life
You light up my life
A furnace that warms up the forgotten, dark and cold parts of the me that I think I used to be

You changed me
Rather, I found the courage to rearrange those distorted parts of me to create a mosaic that glimmers with just these newfound memories of you
Now, I walk around with the heaviness of a million butterflies in my stomach

You see, before you I thought I knew what love was, what loving someone meant, what being loved felt like
You are the light that shines over my horizon before the Sun sets
Your voice is a melody I can never compose again; it is satisfying

The grasp of your hands feels like the glue that binds my soul to the afterlife
This love anchors me
This love nourishes me so I can nurture you
I gave birth twice on that rainy afternoon
I gave you life and I birthed love into my life
I no longer want strength to define me –
For you, I need to be vulnerable

I have finally found the light at the end of the tunnel
Handpicked the flowers that my lonely tears watered; I need you to smell the roses every single day and twice on a Sunday
You are my altar
All my unanswered prayers summed into one
You are a culmination of my existence
The closest thing to Perfect
What just enough is
You are what my love is

You are the light of my life
The Sun rising at the break of dawn
Your laughter is the warmth that engulfs our home; it beckons me out of the dark
You light up my life
You are the fire that burns inside me

My darling, you are my Sunshine


Nosipho Ntshangase