Adventures in Po-e-try

So.

Not an altogether new piece, but I shared this on the Poetry Cafe with Josephus III a week or so ago, and I thought I'd share it with the good folks (6 folks?) who frequent this space.

Enjoy.
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every girl I know got a story she don’t tell nobody else

watch her shoulders shrug when she think about the man that did her wrong

or the mother who wasn’t there

see her tight lipped and teary eyed

to carry all that struggle

like a brown paper sack for luggage on the greyhound away from home

you’d never know

that girl cried herself to sleep every night last year

when she learned how it felt to miss the child she’d never held in her arms

all that kind word

and cute smile

come at a price you gotta be crazy to pay

if not crazy

then female

and trying to make it through this world

while carrying a life-long shoulda been list

with unreal realizations

like

i should have left the first time he hit me

or I should have never come back home

we travel heavy

and mostly silent

and believing that’s what strong is

like the quiet keep of pain is the surest sign of resilience

every girl I know got a mean code switch

we say fine

and ok

and I’m doing great

when inside we are shatter and space

all hurricane and the quiet after the storm

as though greater harm come if we sorrow out loud

so we hide away

don’t tell a soul

every girl I know

knows better than silence when she sees it in one of her friends

but for ourselves we double standard for real

but here’s what I know

my story

is more crocodile than pixies dust

and i’ve lost a few things that I came here with

but even the hard part make the whole fantastic

and there is no shame in that

no shame in the pieces that bow our heads for a moment  to open and cry

so why  not cry out

tell one soul the one thing you have locked inside of your voice box

there’s nothing to lose

except the lonely of being trapped inside your own silence