Sacred women
My days used to feel cold
and hollow.
Now there’s never space.
Never any time
for warm tea in this tundra I’ve been living in.
Trapped in a mind that
knows
what it wants but
Never
Uses the keys that it was given
She’s scared,
Tired,
And wants
So
much
More.
But,
“What will they say?”
“What will they think?”
Her mind conveys back to her,
she’s trapped.
Today she wakes up wishing the sun would blind her
again
Like she used to
Just so she can keep the blinds closed.
For just one more day
With little slivers of light peeking through at her.
Hiding
away
There’s nothing
Nothing for me
Out there
There’s no one
For me out there.
If I open it
If I let the light in
Then what?
She hears a whisper
They’ll love you.
——————-
They couldn’t,
How could they?
They never did
Why now.
She’s scared
Afraid
Will they hear her sadness,
tears dropping,
behind her eyes
Behind all the passion and kindness she shares?
Will they
hear me.
Or will they stay fooled
by the illusion of ethereal beauty
Now,
This
is
the real battle
Save herself
now.
Or
Let them see.
Show them she says.
They couldn’t love her
They didn’t
Love her
Yet it hurt sometimes
————————
She had kept all her light
hidden
Within.
NABJ board member Leilah Abree James