My Manifesto

Poetry by Elaine Wahu
Photo by Robert Clark

I was not built to shrink,
to fit into silence or soften my flame
for comfort’s sake.
I was built to speak,
to turn emotion into architecture,
pain into paragraphs -
and presence into power.

 My voice is my empire.
My elegance is not submission - it’s strategy.
I can curse and still sound as divine as wine.
Feel and still lead,
build and still bloom because I,
- am the bridge.
The bridge between hood and heaven,
the garden of Eden,
in between art and order,
in between the fast-lane streets that raised this pillar of honor -
and the visions that keep me rising.

 I am here to show that my power wears fragrance -
not even Maison Kurkidjan could gather its ingredients
My grace can have grit,
My softness is not weakness but
a sophisticated weapon with manners -
not your typical colored teargas from maandamano
“Wan-tam” chaotic Kenyan behavior.

 Patience finally walks beside me now.
Not as surrender but as rhythm -
because timing is divine
and what’s mine is already gravitating toward me.
I walk in my crown,
even when it’s heavy.
I speak truth,
harder than your psychiatrist could dare.
I am Ella.
The voice. The vision. The vessel.
I am purpose in motion.
And everything I touch
learns to shine harder than your AP coated in Diesel

(Submit your poem to thepoetryhood@gmail.com for a chance to be featured)