She Who Has Outlasted The Century Itself

                                                       

                                                               Oreolorun Awawu Omofoyeke Sunmonu Aleri aka Mama Iesa
                                                         

An Ode to Mama Ilesa of over One Hundred Years

She was here before the highways,

before the satellites and screens,

before the world decided it knew everything —

she already did.

One hundred years of rising before dawn, of hands that stirred and soothed and built,

of a back that bent but never broke,

of a voice that held the family together like the spine in a well-worn book.

She has buried grief and still cooked dinner.

She has laughed at things that would break us.

She has prayed with a conviction so solid the walls of the room still carry it.

We are not made of our degrees or our titles …we are made of her.

Her patience runs in our veins like water, her stubbornness like iron,

her love like the old songs: long, and not entirely explainable.

A century and still she watches us

with those eyes that have seen enough to forgive almost anything,

and wisdom enough to forgive the rest.

What is a hundred years?

It is her, unhurried, undefeated,

seated at the head of the table

like time itself came to celebrate her.

Written by Abiola Falusi