Our lives in our mother’s wombs,
Or beautiful memories of our birth.
Can we remember our ancient memories?
The emotions we triggered whenever we kicked,
And the songs that put us to sleep.
We cannot rid of the minor details,
The words that have hurt us and the first colours we fell for.
Truth or dare, you cannot count to ten,
The happiest moments of your life.
Though if my ears could witness once again,
That woman’s cry when she bore me,
And my body feel just as a flinch,
The hands that received me,
I would understand, even for a second, my purpose as I live.
Though how great it must be for our memories to recall,
The warmest homes we have ever resided in.
Lorraine Chambuka is a 23-year-old female from Tzaneen in the Limpopo province. She is from a family of four, with her being unemployed and her mother a domestic worker. Growing up for her was a challenge with almost nothing to depend on, though she conquered her world and is now a 4th-year medical student at the University of Pretoria. She fell in love with literacy in high school and bought into the idea of writing poetry then even though she could hardly communicate in English having been in public schools that rarely promoted the use of the language. I aspire to be a great poetry author and the best neurosurgeon the country has had and one of my greatest passion is literacy in rural schools and wish to empower such areas with opportunities when I also get empowered.