Pedagogy Journey Poem by Rose Kanana

Four year of blissful courtship
I was young, naïve and tender
You told me to join you in what you called common courses- I obliged
You told me that my tongue was heavy and I needed a makeover in phonetics-I obliged
You told me to stop being conservative- I obliged to the ‘vulgar I ‘
Darling my love for you was very suffocating in volumes
The four years of blissful courtship deepened our relationship
Leaving you was very difficult despite telling me my tongue was too fossilized
But I kept saying that it depended on where one first drank their water
You told me that I even had the liberty to write in my tongue
But gave me an ultimatum to transcribe the same

We married after four years of courtship
I loved the exposure you gave me
We toured together and experienced different world views
I conceived and gave birth to many children
You told me good mothers take care of many children- I obliged
I kept getting pregnant every year with multiple children
They were all lovely and I felt no pain of yearly pregnancies
Some became scientists, social scientists, economists, politicians
Others decided to follow suit by getting pregnant like me

After eighteen months of the marriage bliss
I contemplated divorcing you
But you refused to sign my divorce papers
You held me hostage for I wanted to move on
I literary moved on
But I kept coming back to you for consultation and consolation
My new husband never satisfied me
I was used to getting pregnant and raising children
He told me that having children with him was not important
We needed to build a staircase for the children I already had with you

I miss you my first husband
Our children are in all corners of the world
They keep calling me TEACHER
I keep calling them my best children-I miss our children
My second marriage is rewarding
But not as rewarding as the first one-I still love and yearn for it
I plan to come back to you when I turn fifty years-will you accept me back?
I promise you that I will still be hot with energy
Energy that will shock you
I still cheat with you anyway

Only that my cheating with you is yet to bear a child
I am working on the plan for our last born
Once she is born, I will call her a BOOK
All my secrets will be written there
I hope your eyes won't be old enough to read my secrets
First love will always be the best
And my first love is education
Why am I not able to divorce from the education career?
They say once a teacher always a teacher
I keep thinking about you twelve years after our separation