They say I am a woman responsible for the life force of this earth, archaic in beauty and sinewy as a beast.
They say I am free, but my liberty was torn from me in increments, piece by piece like a pound of flesh torn from my bones.
They say the universe always has a plan which was pulled forth from the loins of my foremothers.
They say my poverty would make me humble and that the humility of that poverty was always worn so handsomely on my haggard and furrowed brow.
They say I shall not rise to the challenge of this immense consequence.
And I shall always look upon this aged face with utter disappointment just as I look upon the worn and misused earth with an ache in my gut.
They do not see me as I see me.
They see me as unsmiling and weighted by their choices.
I say I am dismayed with the turning of the tides.
But I also see myself knowing there is a kernel of hope.
And because of this, I smile.
About the Creator
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