FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH

For what it's worth
I will hold you in my thoughts every day...
Willing you to get through 'this'...
Willing you to reconnect
With this imperfect yet still beautiful world
Because that is where healing begins...

I wish for you the feel of warm sun
Caressing your face like your little one's kiss
On a lazy Sunday morning

I wish for you the thrilling song of a hummingbird
Winging its way over a dense impersonal city
Carrying a song that will nestle-in against that very spot
Your baby, your child used to cling to
After a bad dream or a scary movie
Nurturing comfort in a dark inexplicable night

And most of all I wish for you that
-one day-
As you walk through the streets or through the park
And hear the happy laughter of children
Punctuating a game of 'Catch me If You Can'
or 'Kpoju kpoju'moh'
Or catch a glimpse of a mother kissing 'all the hurt away'
On a little one's grazed knee or bruised elbow

Or recognize the pride and fearlessness
On the face of a father carrying his precious giggling cargo on his shoulder

That these will birth echoing memories for you...
That will make you smile...
And remember with happiness
What now seems so far away...and unreachable...

For what it's worth
I, A fellow-traveler in some sort of way
I will hold you in my thoughts and prayers every day...

*Remembering parents who lost their children in the ill-fated Sosoliso Plane that crashed at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa in 2003.