“Don’t Rush” by Gail Nyoka
Turn around
and you’ll be grown up
already.
I spun upon myself
turning, spinning
laughing. Proving her wrong.
Wishing
slow time would
spin as quickly
as I had spun
tight circle around myself.
My mother
is dead now
Her words return
turn and turn
faster and faster
and I am old
already.
I never could
master time’s speed.
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Gail Nyoka Artist Statement:
Oral storyteller, playwright, writer, poet, I move between these art forms finding joy in each of them.
My art is the way I find myself in the world, and find myself within myself.
