Praise Song for Patricia Jabbeh Wesley

Oyehe heeeeeeeh. MotherPoet! Your fatha taught you to be bold. If something is true, keep doing it. Ah, you, Doctor Patricia Jabbeh Wesley! You are the mother of four children. Mama Wesley, you have raised four black human beings in this thicket called America. You, Grebo woman. You have done well. You have raised four human beings in this thicket of words and wordless slights. Ah, who can say you are timid? Who can say you do not know how to throw your voice into the air? And who would have pushed that air aside, if not for you? Who has come to the door asking for Liberian womanspeak poetry? Hehnnnn, they want to know, who is listening-o? Ayi! Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, we are standing on your shadow. Forgive us, mother. We have been crowing like johnny-come-latelies: Maonaka? Ndasvika panyika iyi nemakumbo angu, ndega. What! We are saying what? That we have arrived? Is it?