I have been trampled upon
Yet here I stand.
Shoved and kicked down
Yet I've risen by God's hand.
I have been ridiculed, mocked and teased
For a second did you think it would phase me?
Oh please.

I am the epitome of feminine power
A lady of increasing inner strength by the hour.
I am an impenetrable spirit,
Soaring higher beyond dimension, space and time limit.
I am an infectious disease called happiness
A lady who knows her worth
And won't take anything less.

I am worthy
I am deserving
I am excellence
I am God-serving.

I am an African Woman:
A hand-crafted masterpiece
A conqueror of challenges and hardships
A lady of spiritual wealth and infinite being.

I am beauty personified.
An image of immortal greatness.

Harsh words of cruelty merely graze my surface
Label me a worthless piece of unwanted coal
And watch as I am put under pressure
And manifest into a bright diamond of immeasurable worth.
Unbreakable.

I am power
I am strength
I am an African Woman.

I am a canvas
Painted in harsh strokes
With kind words
Mistakes blend in
Over time and diligence
But are never erased
They sit quietly
Under layers of oil paint
Built into my foundation

Who is the 'you' that singers sing too?
The 'you' that sends poets diving through vast oceans for poetic pearls?

You're the rain on windows late at night, natures own lullaby.
You're the sun rays in which I bask, you make me feel alive.

You is a collective term.
An indistinguishable figure, a faceless being.
'You' are a silent understanding. Universal.

You hold the promise pleasure and pain of all the bodied 'you's that tarnished your name.
'You' are the silence we scream because the world talks to loud to hear us.

'You' are the nameless, holding up all the 'me's' that aren't strong enough to say this.
'You' are the silence we crave when to speak their names can only pain us.

how does one word
hurt much?

Do you even need help
in carrying
the load,
the burden you
kept,
and the life
you're trying to
bury?

SOMETIMES answering one question
is just asking too much...

--but i have realized
that i live for the ash in your eyes,
the shadows i kiss from your collarbones
the unspoken flames that dance
                                     across your skin

igniting, consuming.
between the swirling dust
and your smoky eyelashes,
i breathe you,
choke on the embers and
love every moment of it.

The looking-glass self

Your stabs hit me exactly where you hope they would
with such ferocity that gouges out all vanity and conceit.
A knife ****** through the illusions of my bloated ego,
An ugly distortion of an inner image through a plastic glass
which finally crumpled with me looking at the looking-glass self.

I am the queen of what ifs
Sitting on a throne of could've beens

My fears are my loyal subjects
Escorting my dreams to the gallows

My ambitions are now prisoners
To my court of procrastination

I, the queen
Reign over all of this regret