This Is Grace Poem by Angela Bontle Ditumiso

I often look back
(Forever moving forward)
My past is full of spiderwebs
That failed to trap me
I'm not lucky
No, this is not luck
This is grace

When I was a youngling
I'd sit on the pew
And my heart would yearn
Call for worldly things
Call for the offering on the basket
Call to own all that wasn't mine
But I could never answer
Then one day what I couldn't respond
To stopped calling for me
(That's how I learnt about unrequited love)

When I was fifteen I'd grin my way to church
It was the only time I knew how to bloom
One day mom caught sight my expanded buds
She questioned my sanity
Said nobody had ever dared to walk around exposed like that
I told her when I think church,
I imagine an embrace,
I do love hugs