as young as sampaguita in the farm
but stubborn as a mule
a pain in her mama's chest

her day cries if she doesn’t get
what she wants and days get longer  
if she refused to do the chores

stubborn child, stubborn child, her mama said
it echoes back her ears
words she doesn’t want to hear

it isn’t her mama’s equation to solve
but she repudiates and spews dormant philippics
like an erupting volcanoes

stubborn child, stubborn child, her mama said
it echoes back her ears
words she doesn’t want to hear

but her papa was different different as he was
he held her stubbornness like a baby
in his arms so fragile

he put her in a hammock and heard her cry
like a deep broken voice no one hears
and saw her dark shadows no one sees

he, whose heart flows in her veins
lifted her up and soften her heart
as she lay them down his chest

she whispers upon the moon for a change
many nights before she retires to bed
but like ravens their feathers always black

she can’t understand why her mama only sees
the ugly face of stubbornness
but then for her she finds beauty from it
an ornament her breast wears

her will power!
that’s what she is

there was a child whose father
brews rice at dawn
before the eyes of her mother
she frowns and stands like a pawn

her neighbors grumble saying
her lips a peg for pots
but they've seen nothing
what's inside her hearts

at the age of ten she thinks
like a hundred times her age
she burns her brows at nights
while her siblings sleep in their caves

she stands in the dark trails
her childhood can't see or hear
but her heart alone sees
how much she wanted to be free                                                                                                            

there's a spring of tears
and a lake of fire
she locks her door
and hides her face inside

cyclothymia runs her blood, they said
but their blind to see
blind to see her in a bottomless pit
almost defied

and her mother only sees
a face with a frown
a frown not the fullness
of her heart with a crown

but her father looks into her eyes
his smiles washed away the frown on her brows
leaving no flecks but a face that radiates
she flows with the rivers and seas

he sees her depths and lifts his pride
his a shelter she trusts her back and her spine
and her face glows in the dark a luminous green
then she finds her way and strength to walk on her path

the child with a frown no longer exists
her mother stands still in wonders
the neighbors and their mouths are shot
as a well grown garden arise
full of flowers bees and butterflies

I struggle with myself,
I struggle with my brain
it ain't that I'm a crazy
it ain't I'm gone insane

trauma changes people
deep within the mind
all that I am asking
is you be the loving kind,

I gotta thinkin problem
some things invade my thought,
I don't know when it happened
or if it was something I was taught,

so tell me I'm annoying
but don't say that I'm bad
tell me I am wonderful
in loving me your glad,

I will love you truly love
cuz I am true of heart
but maybe we are doomed you know
doomed we were the start,

but still,
too not seek the beauty in the experience,
seems to me a waste of both our precious precious time
when loving could be so amazing
exciting an sublime

I only ask you try
be present be with me
open up your mind and heart
only then we will see
if to love so unencumbered
will set our love so free,

only then we will know-

if you an I
were ever -
REALLY
meant to be.

Ma Cherie © 2017

"Think about it, we have each other and all she has is her rage."*

Because one can't simply be happy in this world without there being people to try to tear them down.