Her poetry is also about me
even though it isn't entirely true
there ís a fire in my belly

maybe it can be put out
but as long as it burns, it desires
the best of you

that does not lust after my beauty
to penetrate my lips
but is longing

for the best of me
the heavy whole, holy
and safe, my home

that I formed myself
from the metal of my body
and the silk of my spirit

I am sick and tired of being sick and tired
I am tired of the fights,
The political wars,
And the real ones
Of the lies and deceit,
Of the blinding ignorance

You don’t care
You. Don’t. Care.
Because you don’t have to
Your brothers aren’t being shot,
Your mothers aren’t being locked up
Your aunts aren’t being deported,
And your cousins aren’t beating themselves up
You don’t care,
but I wish you did

What do I have to do?
Because all my talking and all my speeches aren’t helping
I am being called an angry child,
so you can sit comfortably on your throne of privilege

So please, enjoy
Enjoy as your world crumbles and falls around you
But know this
I may be tired,
I may be fed up,
And I may be frustrated,
But I am **** sure not done yet

Are you
the lonely wailing on the radio
or a smile for the screen

The strings do they pull
upward
or down
poor corners of your mouth
sore fleshy cheeks

leave the bone below for your own mind
Cream teeth molded to what the you believed
they want of you

Woman or man or he or she or him or they their
We admonish expectation.

I am scared.
Not just for myself but for all the girls out there.
For all those girls who walk home alone really late.
For all those girls whose bosses after work hours ask them to wait.
For all the young girls who don't even know much about anything yet.
For all the women whose husbands or fathers get real drunk after sun set.
Why you ask me?
Because of all the disgusting stories I've heard and the terrible things I've seen.
Because men get away with almost anything.
Even if they've ruined a girl's everything.
Because y'all don't want to teach boys to treat women with respect.
You don't want to teach them to back off when she rejects.
You just want to go on about how she should have dressed more appropriately.
But even then would he have treated her differently?
I don't think so.
Because we encouraged this when we failed our girls a long time ago.
When we didn't give justice to all those countless women.
When we let the guilty men walk away as if they had done nothin'.
When we blamed the victim.
When we didn't even let her speak and only listened to him.
We failed when she stopped reporting even, because she didn't want to make it worse for herself.
We failed when we drove her so mad, so devoid of hope that she ended it then and there.

You never act like a boy,
or a girl,
You act neither,
let me give you some reminders:

You walk neither,
sway your hands in ambiguity,
don’t carry with you a briefcase or a feather duster –

Talk neither,
the tone of your voice must be the interim of everything,
if it would have colors it must be colorless,
not dark navy nor shallow pink.

Think neither,
meaning you think without personality.
you don’t scatter petals prior the arguments,
nor you hide stringencies behind moon blasts –

You become neither –
you call no one man, nor woman woman,
you call every one neither –

So smile neither,
meaning you don’t smirk,
or coyly carve a canopy on your face,

it’s offending.

You don’t want to offend anyone, do you?
Neither do I.

Flowers in a field look so lovely.
Flowers in a field how your colours burn so bright.
Flowers in a field with breezes sway so gently.
Flowers in a field reaching skyward craving light.

Wild grasses grow amongst such beauty.
Wild grasses grow to set the balance right.
Wild grasses grow not in awe of what’s around them.
Wild grasses grow knowing they are equals in His sight.

"Get home before it's too dark.
You cannot wear clothes like that in a public park!
When you're out, stick close to your friends.
And please for god's sake cover yourself!
Don't make eye contact with strangers.
Steer away from all those men, they are nothing but danger."
You taught me all this since I was a kid.
You taught me fear and corrected me in every single thing I did.
"It isn't his fault" you said "boys will be boys."
You silenced me all my life and not once did you let me raise my voice.
Why didn't you teach him to look at me in the right way?
Whatever wrong he did no one cared, he was forgiven straight away.
You always taught me he was a predator,
When you should have taught him that I am not prey.