Still
There are days
When there is no way
Not even a chance
That I dare for even a second
Glance at the reflection of my body
In the mirror and she knows why
Like I know why
She only cries
When she feels like
She's about to lose control
She knows how much control is worth
Knows what a woman can lose
When her power to move
Is taken away
By a grip so thick with hate
It could
Clip the wings of God
Leave the next eight generations of your blood shaking
And tonight
And tonight
Something inside me is breaking
My heart beating so deep
Beneath the sheets of her pain
I could hear every tear she cried
A year- a name
And a face I'd forever erase from her mind
If I could just like she would
For me
Or you
But how much closer to free would any of us be
If even a few of us forgot what too women in this world cannot
And I'm thinking
What the hell would you tell your daughter
Your someday daughter
When you have to hold her beautiful face
To the beat up face of this place
That hasn't learnt the meaning of stop
Stop
What would you tell your daughter
Of the womb raped empty
The eyes swollen shut
The gut too frightened to hold food
The thousands upon thousands
Of bodies used and abused
It was seven minutes of the worst kind of hell
Seven
And she stopped believing in heaven
Distrust became her law
Fear, her bible
The only chance of survival
Don't trust any of them
Bolt the doors to your home
Iron gate your windows
Walking to the car alone
Get the keys in the lock
Please, please, please, please, open
Like already you can feel that five-fingered noose around your neck
Two hundred pounds of hatred digging graves into the sacred soil of your flesh
Please, please, please, please, open
Already you're choking for your breath
Listening to the broken record of the defense
Answer the question
Answer the question
Answer the question
Answer the question, miss
Why am I on trial for this?
Would you talk to your sister
Your daughter
Your mother like this?
I am generations of
Sisters, daughters, mothers
Our bodies battlefields, war grounds
Beneath the weapons of your brothers hands
Do you know they found land mines in broken women's souls?
Black holes in the parts of their hearts
That once sang symphonies of creation
Bright as the light on infinities halo
She says
I remember the way love
Used to glow on my skin
Before he made his way in
Now every touch feels like a sin
That could crucify Medusa
Kali, Oshun, Mary
Bury me in a blue blanket
So God doesn't know I'm a girl
Cut off my curls
I want peace when I'm dead
Her friend knocks at the door
It's been three weeks
Don't you think it's time you get out of bed
No
The ceiling fan still feels like his breath
I think I need just a couple more days of rest
Please
Bruises on her knees from praying to forget
She's heard stories of Vietnam vets
Who can still feel the tingling of their amputated limbs
She's wondering how many women
Are walking around this world
Feeling the tingling of their amputated wings
Remember what it was to fly, to sing
Tonight she's not wondering what she would tell her daughter
She knows what she would tell her daughter
She'd ask her what gods do you believe in?
I'll build you a temple of mirrors so you can see them
Pick the brightest star you've ever wished on
I'll show you the light in you
That made that wish come true
Tonicht she's not asking you what you would tell your daughter
She's like deep in the Hell- the slaughter
Has already died a thousand deaths
With every unsteady breath
A thousand graves in every pore of her flesh
And she knows the war's not over
Knows there's bleeding to come
Know she's far from the only woman or girl
Who trusted this world no more than
Hands that trusted rusted barbed wire
She was whole before that night
Believed in heaven before that night
She knows she's not the only one
She knows she won't be the only one
She's not asking
What you're gonna tell your daughter
She's asking
What
You're gonna teach
Your son