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1 " How long would we continueto hear in the news our tomorrows silenced like the lives of flies? "
― Valentine Okolo , I Will Be Silent
2 " YouthYou are the breathof dandelion seeds.An explosion of fresh fuzzinessand abundant zeal,unanchoredby the laborsof this life. "
3 " Truth I have come to learn is a lot like bitter-leaf, a West African plant used to make soup in Eastern Nigeria. Bitter-leaf is acrid to the tongue but soothing and quite medicinal to the body. "
― Valentine Okolo
4 " I have walked through many wars, carried the infant from the mother in a pool of red. "
5 " I will not speak of the woman,round and heavy, like me,who will give birth to a child she’ll be ashamedto name. "
6 " I am yesterday’s newsabandoned in a heap, patiently waitingfor the recyclers bin "
7 " On this dayinnocence was drowned in water,and puberty terminated by the blade of the guillotine. "
8 " What does it matter to thoseliving across lines of hate and insanity,spawned by centuries of oversight,their border posts fortified by rifles? "
9 " When your mates tossed soccer ballsand braided each other’s hair,you were issued a Kalashnikov,given a rag tag uniform, and set upon the path of Hannibal instead. "
10 " The color of hatred is not the rage in a woman’s eyes,jilted by her lover in the eleventh hour.It is the deployment of kids as arsenalsin a holy war that’s not so holy. "
11 " Come with me to this backroom of greybehind a fortress of blood and steel,where girls who would be mothers,are carted away, codeine eyed,to quest the Holy Grail on alien soilby women who should be mothers to them. "
12 " I am content, but I’m sad. The sadness, it seeps through my hooded eyes. "
13 " You area water nymph from the ocean rising. "
14 " FlameYou burnlike a candleor a hurricane lamp,your eyes, shut like a window at dusk.Your hair, orange ropes.The flames from your aurareveal a rapture of release,I see in the cleft of your teeth. "
15 " This young maiden,blossoming in the rays of youth,my teeth chalk-white,my breasts, mangoes, ready to be plucked in season, red and ripe. "
16 " I witness the crimson siegesstarted by overlords in gas maskswhich cause chaos clouds to formover the living to steal their liberty "
17 " Woman,may you always remember your birthright. For you are salt;the jewel of the sea,the maidenwith a thousand shimmers. "
18 " Her executionersused her innocenceand sent herinto the midst of the rest,a living grenadewearing a hijab. "
19 " Black GirlYourskin is dark chocolatedipped in honey.You area delicious shade of melanin. "
20 " To me words are life. Words carry with them a strong creative force. A force that makes things happen. "
