Of Envelopes and Mirrors
January 28, 2018
Listen
To the women in your life.
Our voices are not sealed in a safe,
Or buried under a tree,
We are the envelope
Unsealed by the steam of empathy.
Once open, listen.
How does a child imagine evil
If it has not happened to her?
Creativity is, sadly/happily,
Oft based on reality.
Do not placate us,
For that suffocates.
Do not put us on a pedestal,
For that petrifies.
Why are there still millennia of assumptions to strike?
Why do men continue to hold and control
When women have been the
Foundation upon which their façade stands.
Our selves
Our clothing
Our sexuality
Our careers
Our wages
Our visions
Tired of fighting merely
To be seen, heard, heeded.
Why do they insist on an unrelenting superiority?
Equality, I assume (who knows), cannot hurt.
Why weigh threats against tears,
Arrogance against heartache?
We are not the unknown,
We are their mothers, grandmothers, sisters, wives, daughters, cousins, nieces.
Why do they feign confusion that we deserve/demand
R E S P E C T.
Haven’t we been singing about it for a while.Hello, hello can you hear me?
Have we coddled and comforted too much:
Transferring her ego to support his.
Destruction by love.
Surely it is easier to climb by helping
Not shoving,
Easier to thrive by sharing
Not taking,
Wiser together
Not crushing.
Do not kiss my forehead,
Sidestepping my content for
Faux comfort.
Embrace
The fullness of my body.
Stand before a woman,
Imagine you are her mirror image,
What do you reflect back, what do you ignore?
Is it a suggestion or the details of a person.