TWIST
A taste, a kiss, twist, dismissed
The silence of the last drip -
I'll drink to this.
MURKY WATERS
The first time I saw
Your murky waters
Was in a dream,
Waves crashing in
to the glass casing
I was hiding in
But the glass didn’t smash this time
the glass didn't smash this time
Next time
I saw your murky waters,
When you touched my knee.
I saw into your brain:
You were broken,
Darker than the depths of me
But I didn’t drown this time
I didn't drown this time
If I stay, will you take me
To the water’s edge
And bury me?
What you gonna do
What you gonna do
What you gonna do to me?
You always take me to the water
To the murky lake
And each time
I’m left with this feeling
That one day
You’ll become the lake
And take me underneath
The waves
ARMS
These walls like arms
I’m safe within, for now;
I have all the things around me
that I need.
I’ve landed on the coins,
of the lottery of dreams,
Arisen from the cinders
of the solitary.
I laugh at meals,
Shared under the stars,
That put me to sleep,
night after slumber.
I smile with the rest,
Banter at its best;
And dance into the frolic
of cookie dough habits.
But my heart yearns for more.
SKIN
I look around and watch
The skin of these walls sink in
To this new way
I look at life and breathe in
The window scene a little different
From how it used to be
Street lights and me
The city, the city.
The same old,
the same roll;
the hours,
the fall;
Just a different skin.
Is a snake the same
before it casts its history to a shell?
New skin; still me; or is it?
To be, to be.
FOR THE GLORY
Well I thought it would go:
The burn in my bones,
Sick in the folds;
Night turns on my pillow
Just 16,
Turned onto dark
Roads filled my heart -
Voice slowed to silent.
Ten years,
Pitter patter,
Mozart buzzing,
Rhythms tapping.
Then lonely roads,
Of holy souls,
Quiet voice of mine,
watching quiet, stood.
Face to face,
Hanging on,
To tear the self,
I'd come to own.
Sarah and Ella,
Stage fright and laughter,
The dancing devil -
His forked path turned
For the love,
Sweet music;
For the glory -
At last, I'm free.
I, WOMAN
This #Metoo campaign is toting the fires
in this circus of life that’s online; I couldn’t sign.
How did a hashtag become the conscience
of the collective mind?
Oh don’t get me wrong,
I’ve had my fair share of fun:
first time I was four
if I recall the trouble -
just like someone else I know.
She had it much worse than me,
What memories yield
When the man of your dreams
Finds his solace in threes.
And more devastating still,
Is how long she stayed!
With a man that showed his love
Like the cut of a blade:
He puckered his lips,
About the width of a fist,
And left his imprint,
Between her nose and her tits.
Hope you’re not expecting tears.
She found her feet
In the throes of a degree
Put pen to page
Till she could leave; took the kids.
He visited still,
I remember from the stairs,
As he puckered those lips
For a departing caress.
And it stung the next day,
When I leant in for a hug
Face puffed with pride,
Put the skip in her walk -
She went to work.
I’ve searched in vain
For the voice of the great;
The ladies that weather,
The best of our fate -
No hashtag to date.
The truth behind the veil -
Do I have your attention?
Do you want to know
What makes a woman?
I hope so; listen:
I think of my girls,
that served me so well:
Wollstonecraft, Boudica
Even Thatcher in shades:
I’m too red blooded,
To be blue as old coal;
But her embers still burn,
As a symbol of more,
That ring in my mind
When I think of my life;
For I’d never be free,
to write and think
and be and fight,
Without the blood of the women,
That served me these rights;
From the plates they did not sup;
And for children they could not love;
And for the men that took their bodies;
Who play out in my story, 100 years on;
So I could stand, hat off,
And put in black and white,
The story of what it takes to say -
I’m a woman.
Woman braves the waves,
With sails she weaves from her tears.
Woman sets fire to the sea,
And dives in to find her glory.
You beat me, but I stand.
You break me, but I stand.
I am power of creation
I, Woman.
You burn me, but I stand.
You break me, but I stand.
I am pain, I am fire,
I am earth, I am sky,
I am love, I am life -
I, Woman.