I Died and They Found These on My Tombstone

foreword♥

If you are here it means that I have finally stopped battling with my conscience and found the courage to stand naked in front of a bunch of strangers, pour out my heart mind soul and all the things that have been eating away at them for 17 years.

I don't know if I'm a poet, I write words in my spare time because they help me set things free and even better, they help me understand myself.

I wrote my first poem when I was six. I thought they were like decorations, things you have to make pretty so it makes other people feel good.

Now my poems are more for utilitarian rather than aesthetic purposes, they are like tools; I use them when I have to and I use them for myself.

This anthology is titled the way it is because I had to divide up all the poems I've written into different catgeories so I could make a series.

The ones you will read in this book are the poems I feel represent the truest, most vulnerable parts of myself.

The poems I would give to someone if they wanted to know the kind of person I am when no one else is around.

I hope you will enjoy them and treat them kindly and I am so happy you've taken the time.

Love,

Ojinika.