Ẹrù Ara

(The Body’s Burden)

Description:

She begins here,

marked before she moved,

named before she could speak.

Her body not her own,

but a vessel of patterns —

etched, gifted, imposed.

The weight lives in the shoulders,

the marks shimmer like warnings

or maybe blessings,

depending on who is looking.

This is the before.

Still whole, but already heavy.