Paper chain dolls/Caged bird

Would you rather see me as a sheep?

A dark blurred shadow?
To glow - I'd need your approval
To emit my own light I'd need your alliance.

Climbing up the jagged wall,
with your feet crushing my fingers
I would rather let go and drop a thousand feet
then for you to own my significance.

Monitoring my breaths,
placing a cap on feeling exhilaration,
you want me comfortable
Predicting my pulse over time
because you can only control so much
with a premature heart and mind.

When I speak of the issues surrounding recidivism
or how young girls need positive female role models
I see you focus in on my lips,
your forehead gets sweaty as you nod your head.
In your mind you're torn -

Torn between accepting a woman
who is capable of having beauty and intelligence
which is unbound, challenging and passionate
you either humble your ego,
engage with her mind, her soul
all she has to offer as her equal

or.

See a challenge you need to own.
See the beauty, neglect the brain
get in quick, her body you claim.
Make her believe you give a shit,
all the time thinking...

"who the fuck does she think she is!?
Throwing around them words -
she don't know what they mean!
All she really needs to know
is how to say my name, 'yes' and 'please'.
Succumb to me bitch, I run the show.
Wish you'd just flick your hair back
go re-apply and move your lips real slow.

Just listen... because I'll teach you all you need to know.

WE have the choice.

We need to separate the boys from the men
and make that distinction before we let them in.
Because we shouldn't have to shrink
to fit the box that they provided -
Feeling like Alice breaking through windows and doors

as we embrace our real potentials, our real souls.

Taking breaths that fill our lungs
exhaling the negativity that's been thrust upon us;
all the emotional blackmail, sly criticisms picking us apart
or the acts of neglect that withered at our hearts.
The rejection and tactics used to keep us down,
to keep us feeling smaller than the big man in town.

Whilst they suck on our tit of support using it to better themselves
happy to watch you stand in the shadows
fighting your battles without any help.
With just one hand, handicapped you squander
picking up the broken pieces from the last time
he dropped you from the heavens you tasted
when he wasn't cold or lost miles yonder.

I snipped away at all the good pieces
to make a chain of paper dolls
had to stop giving all of me
because me you was never ready to receive.

When I dropped a thousand feet -
I survived...
And the most beautiful thing happened
I saw my lies.

I acknowledged myself, my heart, my mind.
I took opportunities and flourished with them over time.
I surpassed all expectations
when no one told me I could be this.

So now I stand infront of the mirror
confident in my own skin.
And I pinch myself everyday
because only God and I know where I've been.




Images: ©http://www.auntannie.com/FridayFun/DollChain/ ,    © http://sincitygirl73.wordpress.com/2011/12/21/i-know-why-the-caged-bird-sings/