a 17 year old mother - poem by Amanda Mbali

Amanda, a learner from Luhlaza High School, Khayelitsha, Cape Town read her poem to a group of us on 6 September 2008. It touched me ... she is 17 years old.

Here goes ...

YET, Iam a Mother

Seventeen is all I am
I myself and I still lost
Still need to be guided
"Cause I'm still so damn young
Yet Iam a mother

I am a mother so young
I am a mother so Immature
I am a mother so jobless
Not Yet a full-grown -up woman
Still a gril
Yet I am a mother

I knew this would happens someday
Thought I'll be a mother to a huge
bunch of good children

Never thought it'll happen so soon
Never thought I'll be this young
Yet I am a mother

How did it happen so quick?
One moment of acting as a fool
but that foolish moment ruined my young life
and now I am a mother
Yet I am a mother

Now I am wishing
Wishing I never did what I did
I still ask myself "Why now?"
but what if "why now?" does not change anything
'cause I am a mother
Yet I am a mother

How will I support us, is a question
How will I tell my parents is another
Tell my parents that their daughter
is about to be a mother
I mean telling them that the apple of their eyes
Is about to be a mother will be heart-throbbing
How will I tell them?
All of this I don't know
All I know ia I am a mother
Yet I am a mother
Will I be a good mother so immature?
Will I be a good mother so young?
Will I be a good mother so Jobless?
How am I supposed to guide a child?
How am I going to be a guardian
Whilst I still need guidance myself?
No answers yet
But yet I am a mother