She Realizes She is a Human
My skin is purple
Underneath I’m red
I feel responsible
For the monsters in my head
I lie awake in my bed
Is this life until I’m dead?
Is this my life
Until I’m dead?
I am growing branches from my shoulders
My leaves turn green
In the spring sun I bear fruit
I was awake when you whispered
You loved me
I was awake
When I pretended I was asleep
I’ve been awake to many things
And pretend I’m asleep
To keep myself sane
To protect myself from the suffering
Am I strong, or am I weak?
He began to raise his voice
She held firm in her raised eyebrow
She knew if he were to yell louder
The neighbors would hear
Sad she doesn’t know, they’re used to the fighting now
Along the subway she slept
Peacefully sleeping in her chaos
Sleep comes sweet like sugar in medicine
She wakes to find a new spot for the night
Standing atop a wondrous hill
The wind picked up and settled in chill
Her knight, she thought, was coming one day
Unaware of her own glistening armor
Silver sword at her hip
Hips swaying side to side
Her round bottom catching eyes
Everyone swooned when she smiled
She was just trying to pick up her child
School is a prison
The pipeline is working
Prison is the mind
Stuck in slavery
Prison is the body
Feared by power
Prison is the soul
Exploited by jealousy
Prison was made
By the oppressor
Her jealous lover demanded
Unappreciative of her gifts
Things had been going so well
She had roses in her hair
She smelled like a blossoming garden
Blooming for a man
Who destroyed her petals
She learned to build
Walls instead of flowers
Her body ached from the unnatural labor
No man could have her
Asking someone to be with you
For a lifetime is pretty cruel.
To accept his demons and to ask for love
She does so without blinking
Because she loves
Her baby boy in her arms
She crosses the rio grande
Hoping to one day sing him to sleep
Sweet lullabies about their native land
In a new land that may one day
Destroy her baby boy
His hands so small
They can barely grasp
That one day he’ll be a man
The mother prays that he’ll be kind
She braves the sweltering sun
Miles of desert sand
Towards an unknown
Blistering feet of those who fight
Angered by injustice
Taking to the streets
Hear the heartbeat
Of those hearts who are breaking
But together they stand
With ideas of a better world
My heart aches and pulls my chest in
Heartbeats don’t define life
My words come and my words go
The tides come and the tides go
But that doesn’t mean there isn’t an ocean
I am my ocean
Deep and mysterious
No man has gone deep enough
To uncover the gems she has hidden
She’s not a treasure hunt
There is just the depth and pressure of a woman
Pressuring her to say yes
Not really sure what to say
She mumbles
It’s not OK to assume yes
She is paralyzed
When her lover confessed
He too violated a woman
How can that be?
A man so sweet
Violated and destroyed
A woman and her identity
She looks in the mirror
She isn’t what she sees
A disfigured creature
Scared and breaking
Barely breathing
She wants so badly to shed her skin
And become the butterfly she was meant to be
Before he hurt her
She forever lives in her cocoon made of silk
What do you do
When the ones you love
Have at one time perpetuated hate?
Isn’t it great
That humans are such forgetful creatures
A curse and a blessing
We reinvent ourselves
We evolve
It keeps our species alive
Alive
What does it mean to be alive?
For a human?
Is it our breath? Our Doubt? Our love?
Our forgiveness? Our mistakes?
He held his daughter on his shoulders
Her sweet child laughter dances in the air
Onlookers smile and wave at her
She giggles blissfully unaware
That one day she will be a woman
A woman just looked around
Did others witness her being harassed
Unbelievable she thought
This just happened to me
This is now a part of my story
Her eyes frantically searching
For a knowing look
To acknowledge she wasn’t crazy
That she wasn’t crazy for reacting
Strangers blur in
Strangers blur out
Sonder
A perfect word to describe
Strangers living just as vividly
As you and I live
You are a stranger to a stranger
And so on
So when strangers carry on
Blind to injustice
Know that the strangers
Are what makes up our society
And we are responsible for each other
Your averting eyes and turning cheeks
Do not absolve your responsibility
“Speak up,” the teacher said
She raised her voice a little louder
She wasn’t explicitly taught to be quiet
It was just a given to be smaller
And when she braved to dare the structure
To shake it’s foundation
She realized just how weak
The structure is
“I am alive,” she said
“I am alive because of my mother.”
The walls begin to crumble
“You are alive because of your mother.”
The roof is blown away
And sunlight shines in
“We are alive because of women.”
“We die because we are human.”
And she summoned the universe
A witch, she has powers
She is the one who determines
Whether she wishes to give life
Because she is worth more
Than her uterine capabilities
She realizes
And that’s how she knows she’s alive
She wishes to awaken
Those that are asleep
And they realize life doesn’t have to be this way
Life doesn’t have to be this way
What are these games we play?
Truth? Woman and man are humans
Dare? I dare you to be a human
See strangers as human
See me how I want to be seen
Find the beauty in me
I’ll find the beauty in you
And i’ll love you for what you are
A human
