I am 42 and was born in Madagascar. Since 2008, my family and I live in Ann Arbor.

Last Saturday May 10th, I joined the rally for a community awareness and prayers to help bring home the 200+ girls that were abducted from their boarding schools in Northeastern Nigeria.

It was a beautiful crowd that stood up and gathered together. Once home, I wrote this poem that I want to share with our community.

Bring Back Our Girls

There are many women in me

And today, they are crying.

But their tears are not of despair

Their tears are rage, indignation, sadness and compassion.

I cried, but I also prayed.

God help us.

We failed….

The heart of the grandmother cries

My little girls don’t come to dance around me anymore;

My little girls are not here for their favorite bedtime stories.

The heart of the mom cries,

My girls have disappeared

My womb is bleeding while remembering these 9 months

9 months creating this unique relationship , blessed by the Creator .

The heart of the sister cries

My confidant, my best friend is no longer here to play

She is not here to make me laugh, and share my dreams.

I am the friend who runs lonely because the others had disappeared from the playground.

I am the woman who cries

For our daughters away from home.

I cry.

For mothers and fathers and families who suffer from their absence.

I am suffering.

I am the Human crying

Afflicted by the society that still today, in the 21st century, continues to create men capable of the worst.

We failed.

Our society keeps creating monsters.

Men who forget that they come from the womb of a woman

Men who forget that women fed them, took care of them, comfort them when they cried or were hurt.

Men who have mothers who sang for them, cared for them, love them.

Men who today are kidnapping, raping, beating, harassing insulting, destroying the life of girls and women everywhere in the world.

Our society is not learning from her History

Our society is missing Unity

Our society is ruled by jungle laws

Ignorance, confusion, and violence.

The dark side is so deep that some men dive into it with passion and faith.

But today in Detroit

My tears were also joy

Today my community embrace Unity

Brothers and sister were shining

Together as One,

I am happy and proud

Our society is also able to bring out the best in US.

Today we stood up,

Today we spoke loud and used our words

Today we said No more.

Today we were the mountain

Rising in the sky.