Portuguese
África, A Minha casa em Luanda, Angola
Quando eu era criança, a casa onde nasci existia muitos anos antes.
Entrando da parte de trás, onde se localizava a cozinha com pintura e um verde pálido,
O forno tapado e quando queria brincar, havia uma porta de saída.
A casa parecia vazia, quando despertava , meu pés no chão e imaginava a mesa castanha
escura com oito cadeiras e sem ninguém na sala de jantar. A minha afeição com a boneca
apertada ao peito estendendo os meus braços com um amor fraternal.
Prossigo a dar um outro passo, e de repente fome aperta-me o estômago, e começou a
saborear o cheiro de manga caída da nossa árvore no quintal. Ao lado da árvore gigante, me
recordo do tanque de água no meio da parte de frente na entrada da casa da Mãe. Assim
mesmo como a minha Mãe me havia contado de todas as vezes que a água em Luanda era
cortada e a falta do tal afetava-nos deixando todos os pratos na pia da cozinha. Sem água não
havia maneira de preocupar-se com a fundição de pratos na cozinha. Por então , o tanque
cheio de água , estava reservado para ocasiões como aquelas. Com um balde, de rodilhas
baixamos para apanhar a água para beber, banhar e cozinhar. Então as situações, na minha
família aprendemos a saber como se virar em tempos difíceis. Estar preparados era a nossa
substituição em caso de emergências como aquelas.
English translation :
My Home in Angola, Luanda
The small house I grew in Luanda was older than before I was born. I , as the little child
walking toward the back of the house.And leaning my body towards the pale green kitchen
along with an oven. I saw a door where I used to escape to play outside. In the emptiness of a
widen home, almost as If I had just woken with an image of what once was.Placing my feet
steady as I looked at the emptied eight chairs. There I was with the most tender affection with
a doll attached to my chest. Then, immediately hunger penetrated my mouth, smelling the
sweetness of a mango tree and drooling as I reached another step.There , I still remembered
the water tank established in my mother’s front yard. There were times where sink water was
cut off from the kitchen. Forsaken as the apparent reason to leave plates floating in the sink
bowl. When emergencies like those arose, my family and I used the tank water for cooking,
drinking and showers.And since then, we created the famous quote used in my family for
centuries: Instead of being frustrated and caught off guard without knowing what to do,
remaining prepared was our mantra.
Outliner’s Path
Evolving has never been an option for neither of us
Younger things
Petite and yet we sing
We’ve learned to adapt with the magenta , emerald and marron
colours and withering
Pluck seeds in each season
The weary dreadful weeds that were weltering over time
I could not have been more proud and astonished at how far ‘you
Have gone and yet there’s more to conquer and spaces to enter
I love the fact that you never ask permission to be your authentic self
How that african girl is growing to an arc of protecting and projecting her own
Art form in the world
And the science spheres are expanding ever so lightly with fluidity
With wings so soft and gentle as a feathers of birds
Aren’t you the one who disrupt every nest and then allowing beatings
And chants from the chest
There were the times were you were once shy and completely introvert self
Hidden underneath your mother garment ,african skirt
This new version you become is one abandoning every principle, custom and
culture wisdom that once held you by but conflicted inside
Here it neither serves you nor assists either one of us in our outliner path.
Maturiting growth spurts
In this upside -turned up of a universe
It is tough to describe into words what friends means
I believe my definition seemed a lot simpler than
The complex versions that were lost in the cycles and patterns of repetitions
The dissatisfaction and obligations and lack of communication
And roundness in misunderstandings only imply one thing
It shifted and don’t you dare attempt to rearrange it
So that they can feel comfortable and safe in it
Own who you’re even when it seems unpredictable and a fixed immovable
Rock. Here’s my truth dear friend : THIS HAS ALWAYS BEEN ME.
The annoying or one you if were so honest to say that
We really stopped vibing like two years ago
I felt the shambles and shackles falling off me
This year once again when i stomped my foot and
Said : NO! Yes I am accepting who I AM
When you try to change who I was.
I am more loving , patient and have no frustrations
Towards this flow and the glow it runs through my skin
In this body and form I stay and abide no longer a stranger to self
But one very intimately and dependently closer
To WHO I am intended to become.
This is my intention to be who I am and will ever be like
evergreen.
Sparks of Love
Fluidity opens like a flower in spring
Ignited wisdom expands from one thought to another
What kind of love is this ?
One persistent, resilient, consistent,
Not with odious criticisms
No no envy , no demise
This love feels _ .
Them whispers strung in my cribbage apart
Those lies have no place in my mind
them who love and never give up and always forgive
Them them them the colours of fuschia
This right in here is that love as a commitment
Vows i made to self and still keeping it
Creating new periods, and more commas in sentences
Not yet formed in my livelihood.
No predictability in this space of obligations
Love is the only thing that never fades.
It never fails even if they failed you.
It won’t fail you , try it again, again and again till
You die and the only thing left is Love.
Português/ Portuguese
Governada
O que aprendi com a minha Mãe de que pedir ajuda nunca significa implorar
As vezes que me senti protegida em Angola quando chovia sem parar
A minha Avó Olívia ensinou-me como atravessar as gerações de prosperidade
Quando ela trabalhava como ajudante de casa uma mulher de nacionalidade Portuguesa
Como se ela fosse uma escrava dos doutores poderosos
Mas quem disse que trabalhar duro é igual a ser escrava ou preguiçosa?
Algo que na nossa sociedade não é aceito nem respeitado
O respeito devido ao ser humano
E e mas devíamos ser estimados de humildade
Pela maneira que uma mulher trabalhava com paixão e com coragem
Ninguém entenderia proximidade e a lealdade de a amizade
Assim como tem a minha Mãe e Avó
Avó Olívia sinto a tua presença no meu coração
Mesmo que não tive a oportunidade de conhecer lha
Cada parte do que resta de mi and do que sou
Nasceu dos sacrifícios dela
E assim eu vivo com o exemplo dela
Com a mesma compaixão cobrindo-me com roupas de elegância.
English translation:
Governed
There were times I too had to beg
Something i must have learned from my mother
In Angola , Africa where I felt shelter from the heaviest rains.
Generations of prosperity and
There was grandmother Olivia working as a maid ‘
To someone in power, doctors
A Portuguese descent not a slave but servant
Being a servant is a privilege not something idly ‘
It shouldn’t have been undermine, overlooked by
Humans but uttered as complement of humility
With spunk and so much that empathy
And there an awareness that service become closer as keen best friends
There may have be so to my grandma and her mother
Whom i never had the opportunity to meet eye-eye or touch flesh-flesh
But, today they live here in my heart
Every part of them as interwoven as tapestry in my personality
In a path and life as I serve like them demonstrating to humans that
Empathy is still valid not as a concept but royalty and something to be treasured as elegancy
Oksana N. Mauricio was born in Angola, Africa.She’s a spoken word Poet,writer, educator,
singer. Oksana’s poetry was published as Bairro at the journal of expressive writing.And
Moonstone Arts Center, The more the merrier ,as part of the International Women’s day
Anthology, and Shakti womens’ Womanhood book, included her poems African wisdom
spells and Queen Sheba published in the United Kingdom. She enjoys nature walks, reading,
singing, playing guitar and skateboarding. And currently lives in Los Angeles, California.