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240
Joe Ink
Student @ University of Abuja
Student @ University of Abuja
MY FATHER'S SHADOW
<p>My father inherited a rule,
His father called it tradition,
A woman's place was the kitchen,
A man's word, her final permission.
He taught me the language of power,
Where husbands command and wives obey,
Where a woman's dream must wait,
Until her husband has had his way.
Then I married a woman with wings,
A mind that could challenge the skies,
A soul with oceans of talent,
And dreams too vast to sacrifice.
She wanted more than the kitchen,
More than a life behind closed doors,
But my father's voice lived within me,
Whispering, A wife must never soar.
I called my fear tradition,
I dressed my pride as a right,
I nearly buried her sunshine,
Just to keep my shadow in sight.
But what kind of man fears a woman
Whose greatness could brighten his name?
What kind of love builds a prison,
Then blames its captive for chains?
My father might call it rebellion,
His father might call it a sin,
But must I destroy her tomorrow,
To preserve what they planted within?
So I stood at the edge of inheritance,
With two generations behind my back,
One hand holding the old mentality,
The other loosening its grip.
I chose to unlearn my fathers,
To question the rules I once knew,
For a tradition that silences women
Is a tradition I need not renew.
Let her rise beyond my shadow,
Let her name travel farther than mine,
For her wings are not my disgrace,
And her greatness does not diminish my shine.
I will not measure her womanhood
By the meals she prepares each day,
Nor weigh her worth by her silence,
Nor love her only when she obeys.
Let the kitchen remain a kitchen,
Not a prison disguised as a role,
Let a husband become her companion,
Not the warden controlling her soul.
And if my father calls me a sinner,
For refusing the cage he called home,
I would rather be judged for her freedom
Than praised for the dreams I postponed.
For the shadow I inherited ends here,
My children will learn something new:
Love does not ask a woman to shrink,
It makes room for her sky to come through.</p>
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