Una mujer

No one will ever understand the pain she with stands.
The blows her body takes and the pain that runs through her.
It is physical and emotional,
it makes her tackle on the person she once thought she was.
She was born to struggle but no one ever imagined this much.
I speak not of the pain aches of heart break that is bestowed upon us all, man or woman.
I speak of the physical pains that women endure that then lead others to look at her funny.
Her period, breast cancer, lupus, sexism, limitations.
It affects us all.

We as women are so much stronger than we give ourselves credit for.
Willingly we make the decision to shove a being out of the vagina men love to play in.
We have the bodies men faun over, wrecking havoc in our hearts.
We as women will tend to your needs not to cater to you but
because it sometimes is the right thing to do. To love another.

Do not think that I need you to hold my hand
or put your arm around me to reassure me of my beauty or our relationship.
These things are additional.
I know who I am and how much respect I deserve.
I’ve been ’hey mami’d’ before and ’ayo boo’d’ too.
Let him know that I’ve done seen it all and been through it all.
I gave up my body because I was anxious to be grown
and feel something so so real.
Part time lovers and part time friends,
never fully committed, never fully happy.
Almost lovers.
All lovers of something so much more trivial than me.

I am woman hear me roar.
I roar not just for me but for my mother who sleeps in the room next to mine
with pains on her feet of years of standing, tending, serving
and who’s mother’s sleeps in the building next to ours who’s feet also ache for the same reasons.
I roar for my nieces who have only just begun to love their dresses and skirts
and fight boys on playgrounds.
I roar for his sister who hurts because the anatomy of a woman was too good to be true.
I roar for the 15 year old princess, unaware of her potential.
I roar for you and me and she and maybe even him.
I hope you are roaring with me.