The women within…

Damn… I’ve been listening to some really good songs lately. Soft songs. Beautiful songs. Songs that can turn another bout of insomnia into a beautiful moment to think, to write, to find a million things to smile about. Songs that make me close my eyes and dance.

I wish the world was as perfectly beautiful.

Or as simple.

I always seem to be in this place… wanting to write a poem to a beautiful woman. Feeling like I have to start with an apology for what the men in their lives have done to them. The things they have done to hide the real woman inside a layered cocoon of whatever it takes to look in a mirror every morning and think that life isn’t perfect… But maybe perfect doesn’t exist.

The woman who has never been adored. The woman who has never had a chance to explore her own sexuality. Freely. The woman who has never allowed herself to be loved. Totally. Unconditionally. The woman who has been let down by every significant man in her life. The woman who has had a glimpse of what it means to be a woman but had that glimpse smothered. The bullied woman. The unfulfilled woman.

This poem is for that woman. This poem is for a lot of women. This poem is for at least 3 women…

Because life is too short to be anything but perfectly beautiful.

Perfectly simple.

THE WOMAN WITHIN

When you should have been a father’s princess.
When you were supposed to have a chest you could bury your face in
and feel safe
When you were supposed to be a girl
You got to be a parent to your brothers
And to pretend that there is a shelter
in us men.

When you should have been a boy’s dream
When you were supposed to get a hundred stupid love letters
from a hundred stupid boys
When you were supposed to be brought flowers
You got to be one of the boys
And pretend that you were better off
amongst us men.

When you should have been a lover’s sculpture
When you were supposed to have every inch of your body and soul
brought to life
When you were supposed to be the woman
You got to be the dutiful body
And pretend that there was a sense of sexual equality
in us men.

But when you one day outgrow us men…

When you one day allow someone to find the princess
When you one day allow yourself to be everything
you are supposed to be
When you get tired of being just the parent or one of the boys
When you are more than a dutiful body
I hope you’ll try hard to find and trust
this man.

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~ by Norm on June 28, 2011.