Praise Poem for Esther Darlene Massie

O Esther Darlene Massie

Morning Star born in the desert light of Phoenix, Arizona,

Child of sun-heat and wide horizon,

Daughter named twice in love

Darlene, echo of your mother’s twin,

A name braided with memory before you took your first breath.

You who carried two women in your name,

You who walked forward with the living and the ancestral beside you,

You desert bloom,

Saguaro-shadow child,

Heat-hardened and tender-hearted.

Esther—star of Persia,

Darlene—darling flame,

Massie—weight of lineage and lift of legacy.

Born where the sky stretches without apology,

Where mountains rise like quiet witnesses,

Where the sun does not whisper but declares.

Teacher.

Builder of minds.

Sower of questions.

You gathered children like constellations,

Mapped their futures across chalk-dusted galaxies,

Opened books like portals,

Turned classrooms into launchpads.

O traveler of continents

You did not stay where you were born.

Mozambique’s salt-wind touched your face.

Kenya’s red earth remembered your footprints.

Zimbabwe thundered at Victoria Falls and you answered back.

Egypt watched you stand before pyramids older than empires.

Italy’s stones felt your quiet awe.

Mexico fed you color and cadence.

Canada held you in its wide northern breath.

You crossed waters our ancestors were forced across,

But you crossed them by choice

Passport in hand,

Curiosity as compass.

O Sister who loved the possible

You kept science fiction close to your heart,

Galaxies and wormholes and distant suns,

Because you understood

That Black folk have always lived in the future

Even when history tried to trap us in the past.

You read of starships.

You imagined worlds.

You believed in tomorrows not yet written.

And your dog

Faithful companion,

Four-legged witness to your laughter,

Keeper of your quiet evenings,

Guardian of your softness.

You who bent down to scratch behind patient ears,

You who understood devotion without language,

You who loved without performance.

Esther Darlene

Desert-born, world-walking, classroom-shaping,

Twin-named and future-facing.

Though you left early

Too early

Before your hair could silver with time,

Before your passport could gather all the stamps it deserved,

Before your students could return as elders to thank you

You are not gone.

You are in every child who lifts a hand to answer.

In every girl who dares to board a plane alone.

In every Black reader who opens a sci-fi novel

And sees stars as inheritance.

You are Phoenix in more ways than birthplace

Rising in memory,

Flame-feathered in story,

Unconsumed by the fire of absence.

We speak your full name so it does not dim:

Esther Darlene Massie.

Named in love.

Born in sun.

Traveled in courage.

Taught in faith.

Loved deeply.

Go on, Sister of the Wide Sky.

Go on, Teacher of Galaxies.

Go on, Desert Star.

We carry your light forward.

© 2026 ALife Allah