Thank you for being a woman For having been born To know the pain of childbirth; For having nursed my mother’s breast To know the joy and happiness of offering my milk; For having been carried on her back To learn how to strengthen my back For having known the tenderness of this maternal heart To learn how to have a child’s heart. Thank you for being a woman For being at the school of prudence Of endurance and of patience In order to be guardian of the hearth To insure its protection and fulfilment; For being a nest of clear and creative thoughts For being the welcoming earth where grow The seeds of the future Thank you for being a woman For being beauty and softness For being light and warmth For being discretion and lobe And finally, more than anything, For being born to give, To give my Peace for the Peace OF HUMANITY.
Jémima Fiadjoe-Prince Agbodjan studied medicine at the University of Dakar and then in France at the University of Lille. She works as a pediatrician in Lomé, Togo
Culled from Scottish Poetry Library