ten

ten is the day I took

my first breath

entering this world

on a promise

of new beginnings

ten is the age

I was when my body

became a woman –

shedding blood,

a promise of motherhood

ten became twenty,

thirty and now forty

every decade bringing

some new chapter

for me to write

I don’t know what forty

will bring but I hope

it’s something good,

not sad – I had plenty

in the other decades