U-Meleni Mhlaba-Adebo
Her Voice in the Wind
Some days, I hear her.
Not in dreams,
but in the wind.
It brushes past my cheek,
carrying a lesson,
a warning,
a blessing.
She speaks in birdsong,
in the kettle’s whistle,
in the way the light
hits the sink.
She’s not gone.
She’s just quieter now.
And I must lean in
to hear her.

U-Meleni Mhlaba-Adebo is a Zimbabwean-American poet, educator, and marathoner based between Boston and Lagos. She is the author of Soul Psalms (She Writes Press). Her work has appeared in MER and Write on the Dot. A Baldwin For The Arts & Brother Thomas Fellow and former Mass Poetry board member, she writes about motherhood, migration, endurance, and belonging, exploring how the body carries memory across continents and generations.(www.u-meleni.com)