Were you also shamed
For being born female?
Did you feel the need to apologize
For being made of curved lines
And soft skin,
For having a mind of your own?
Did you learn how to cast down your eyes
Cover up,
Be respectable,
While a wild heart beat in your chest?
I picture you laced into a corset
Or maybe dutifully underneath a man you did not love
Your body like an offering.
Was your wandering mind
The only thing you could call your own?
When you allowed the forbidden thought,
To what exotic place did you go?
What poems did you write,
What music did you orchestrate?
Could a canvas hold all of the colors you dreamed in?
What rules did you defy
In the name of impropriety?
Who was the lover who finally tamed the wildness of you?
In the morning, when you dressed the part again,
Did you condense your ocean into a single drop
Hold it in your palm and feel the weight of it,
The passion and the possibilities that you would never live?
Was it a bitter pill to take?
Sometimes I look in the mirror
And see a demure set of green eyes
With worlds in them, unrealized,
Right before I blink.
Are they yours?
Did you swallow your screams when you brought your daughters into the world?
I sleep, and I dream your sorrow.
I wake, and I carry all of your pain and hope.