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An ode to my mother and her mother and her mother
Ariella Manuel
A face full of lines and wrinkles
Love granted and life paid in full.
You are a reflection of your season
And my, has it been a pretty one.
You are not what happened to you
You are not what you faced–
The battles you fought and won–
For only peace remains of those times.
My Black elders–
My mothers and their mothers
My grandmothers and their grandmothers
Give me hope beyond imagine.
To age is not to lose
It is to believe and to know
What’s meant for you and only you
One day will be yours.
Ariella Manuel
Ariella Manuel (she/her) is a senior Philosophy major from Flint, Michigan. Whether it be through poetry, prose, essay, or flash fiction, she uses her lifelong love of language and learning to capture the endless stories she sees in the world around her.
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