Pay Back
I walk in strides not held back by the tides
of time and change.
Wading in the waters in neck-deep
lady-like and womanhood’s creek.
Letting its damp floors of muck and grim
not slow or hinder my grind
or forget my sisters treading the same floor
nor those watching on bank and shore
who laid the path and await
for me to lay more.
- I have a responsibility -
Whether or not I choose to see
closed eyes still have visibility
of fog and clear skies.
It is my job, given by those
to be born and those that died
to weather and bear the path’s condition
while dispatching reconnaissance
to the future and the past.
See I owe it to those
who came before
to not break the link that
connects us to the far shore.
I owe it to those
that will follow behind
to remain a strong link
that anchors the bank line
- I, as a woman, have responsibilities, yo -
I am the link connecting those
that come and go -
just as she was my link.
She being that woman,
maybe mother maybe not,
who explained to me, that
after dropping it like it’s hot,
I must stand as a woman
in cold truth; As I have been
guided, I must become the guider
and my reach must be longer and wider
because the world and waters will
continue to grow.
This is how I pay her back: by not
letting one of us fall through the earth’s cracks,
get burned from the heat of hot droppings,
get caught in riotous fighting, gossip,
and “bitch” callings,
to be a fist for the openhanded,
to the quiet be a voice
yelling to those behind me the water’s cold
but full of life and giving of choice,
and I must hold the line.
And since those behind
by inheritance of gender and time
will have the same responsibility
the same pay pact
watch as women and womanhood
unceasingly prosper and grow
from our pay back.
~~
KT ~~ AzSheWrites