"kind thoughts": A Poem

Wura Abulatan’s poetry first started to surface on the internet in the early 2010s while she rounded up her first degree at the University of Ilorin, Nigeria. Since then, the aspiring yogi and self-described plant mom has morphed her storytelling and mastery of words into a career as a public relations executive. Outside her work as communication lead for a Lagos-based fintech, she actively works with Stand to End Rape (S.T.E.R) initiative, one of Nigeria’s foremost youth-led advocacy non-profits for sexual and gender-based violence. On “kind thoughts”, Wura told ARTISH, “I wrote this poem to breathe some relief into my soul. I was stressed out, and overwhelmed, and distressed cos my actions had hurt someone deeply and I wished for a break from the pain. This is one of the kindest things I ever wrote”.

I pray for you, a respite

a peace of colours when dark,

a snatch of serenity in the disquiet

and the good difference of a half mark.

I hope you randomly happen upon

a forgiveness of selves,

an unending pardon,

in a sea of self-loathing shelves.

I wish you an apothecary

stocking various balms

to soothe the ails you carry.

I pray you find gravity’s grace

and it lets you down softly,

feet first into the warm hug of home

I beseech on your behalf,

a break in the bleak,

a calming of the storm,

another chance at love.

I wish you many things but most of all,

a moment to simply catch your breath.

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Read more poetry from Wura here