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.

 

 

TWIST

 

A taste, a kiss, twist, dismissed 

The silence of the last drip - 

I'll drink to this. 

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.