In my version

of the sky

flakes of gold

scatter. Most times,

I look beyond

God, pick one,

wish upon it.

Other times, I

look beyond God

for a woman

like my mother.

*

I cannot tell the woman

from the wound.

Both are so concerned

with your safety

they sit with you

until you heal.

And bleed and bleed and bleed.

About the Poet: Akosua Zimba Afiriyie-Hwedie is a Zambian-Ghanaian poet who grew up in Botswana. She holds an MFA in poetry from the University of Michigan. She is the author of Born in a Second Language (forthcoming 2021), winner of Button Poetry's 2019 Chapbook Contest. She placed 3rd in Palette Poetry’s Emerging Poet Prize and is a winner of a Hopwood Award and a Meader Family Award. She is a finalist of The Brunel International African Poetry Prize, The Palette Poetry Spotlight Award, The Furious Flower Poetry Prize and Wick Poetry Center's Peace Poem contest. Akosua has received fellowships from the Helen Zell Writers' Program, Callaloo and the Watering Hole. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Palette Poetry, PANK, Kweli, Obsidian, Birdcoat Quarterly and elsewhere. She is currently working on her first poetry collection.