When the world spoke of women,
\nit often did so in whispers, in margins, in “issues.”
\nWe, most of us, do not take our lives for granted\u2014
\nwe cannot afford that \u2018luxury.\u2019
\nFor us, survival breathes in everything:
\nthe mundane and the colossal,
\nthe daily bread and the broken glass.<\/p>\n
Women the world over have been forced to wear injustice
\nlike a second skin\u2014
\ninequality as a garment we were given at birth,
\ndiscrimination as a language we learned before speech,
\nprejudice a mirror that never reflected our true face,
\nabuse a guest who would not leave,
\nas if all these ills were a pandemic
\nwith no vaccine in sight.<\/p>\n
In homes that should be sanctuaries,
\nin halls of learning that should illuminate,
\nin places of worship where mercy should dwell,
\nin workplaces that should build,
\nwe have been asked to shrink.
\nEconomically, politically, socially\u2014
\nthe question always the same:
\nHow little space can you occupy?<\/p>\n
Look closer.
\nThese ills infect humanity entire.
\nBut the deepest wound?
\nIt is that they are perpetuated
\nby the very hands, the very systems,
\nthe very voices sworn to protect,
\nsworn to heal,
\nsworn to know better.<\/p>\n
What lives at the core of this sickness?
\nHistory answers with its long and terrible silence:
\nthis has always been.
\nAlways the daughter asked to be smaller.
\nAlways the sister told to be quieter.
\nAlways the mother expected to be endless.
\nAlways the auntie who gave until empty.
\nAlways the grandmother whose wisdom was called a tale.<\/p>\n
Before we ask why,
\nwe must name what is:
\nNot every woman will rise the same way.
\nNot every sister will carry the same sword.
\nSome will have courage forged in different fires.
\nSome will have wit sharpened on different stones.
\nSome will have prowess, fearlessness, integrity\u2014
\nand some will still be learning to find their voice.<\/p>\n
And yes\u2014this too must be spoken:
\nWomen have wounded women.
\nDishonesty has passed between us like a plague.
\nGreed has worn our faces.
\nWe have climbed on the backs of those who should have been our rising.
\nWe have looked down when we should have reached down.
\nWe have worn the make-like mentality
\nlike armor against our own reflection.
\nWe have, in our exhaustion and our fear,
\nlacked empathy for the one who most resembled us.<\/p>\n
But hear this:<\/p>\n
We are daughters who learned to mother ourselves.
\nWe are siblings who fought for siblings who fought us.
\nWe are mothers who bled so children might breathe.
\nWe are aunties who held the world together with worn hands.
\nWe are grandmothers whose silence was never empty\u2014
\nit was filled with prayers for those not yet born.<\/p>\n
We have been vulnerable
\nand still stood.
\nWe have been broken
\nand still built.
\nWe have been told no
\nand still became.<\/p>\n
We are not asking for your permission.
\nWe are not asking for your understanding.
\nWe are telling you:<\/p>\n
We have the right to be whole.
\nTo be tender and terrible.
\nTo be gentle and fierce.
\nTo be wounded and walking.
\nTo be every woman we were always meant to be.<\/p>\n
And we will be.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When the world spoke of women, it often did so in whispers, in margins, in “issues.” We, most of us, do not take our lives for granted\u2014 we cannot afford that \u2018luxury.\u2019 For us, survival breathes in everything: the mundane and the colossal, the daily bread and the broken glass. Women the world over have…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[46],"class_list":["post-3941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poems","tag-poems"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alasca-black.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alasca-black.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alasca-black.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alasca-black.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alasca-black.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3941"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/alasca-black.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3945,"href":"https:\/\/alasca-black.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3941\/revisions\/3945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alasca-black.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alasca-black.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alasca-black.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}