Temporary Shelters
I know of men with holes
who carry wounds
and place them within wombs.
They roam about,
searching for security
within a woman’s body.
Because the only place
they’ve ever felt at home
was in their mother’s body.
In longing for that same feeling,
they search and search and search.
These men, carry wounds
and place them within wombs.
Addicted to the warmth,
they hope to find shelter within a stranger,
only to come out feeling colder and emptier.
The void is not gone.
The bleeding is still on.
Temporary shelters
do not keep you warm forever.
Reprinted from A Pathway Through Survival (2021). Copyright © 2021 by Margaret O. Daramola. Used with permission of the author. All rights reserved.
Margaret Daramola
Margaret Daramola is a writer, spoken word artist, and public speaker. She was raised in Switzerland, where she began writing at an early age. She holds a BA in English from Hampton University.
Daramola self-published her first poetry collection, A Pathway Through Survival, in 2021. She is the recipient of the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship (MMUF) and the Hampton University Student Poet Initiative Award.