VisibleWomanOnline

I know women
who are tall women,
even while sleeping
their spirits rise to the occasion.

I know women
whose mountainous cheekbones
serve as steeples
for the light of her eyes
and the history
she’s never seen;
I’ve sensed that
Nefertiti might be immortal.

Women
who love for the sake of
loving and being loved,
hearts and honey melting
and children being born.

I know women
dark as tropical forests,
as soft as whispers,
as light as summer rain
and as colorful as intimacy;
I know mosaic women.

I know women
who don’t contain their femininity in shrouds of
permissiveness and promiscuity,
a cross of the legs
and “no” when they mean “yes.”
Rather it is expressed
in the lull of contemplation, and
the finale of decisiveness.

I know women
who’ve kissed the wounds of men
who fought on her behalf,
pushing smiles in front of tears.

I know women
with great, big, thick-assed muscles in her
thighs,
from marching 20 miles to racist schools and
40 miles to storefront churches,
where sanctified saints
heal engraved wounds,
building pyramids of hope as she travels.

I know
I know these women
who dance at funerals
and cry the bugles of patience’s end
at weddings and graduations.

These sisters choose
the men they want;
groove the men they want;
They want love.
I know women;

Whose spindly fingers
have crocheted potholders, picnics, and national
treaties.

Women
Who’ve mined barren hopes
for an ounce of indication
that tomorrow
might be better
than today.

I know
I know these women
who’ve taught me
what it means
to be
a WOMAN!

Copyright© Quinita Edmonia Good

Quinita Edmonia Good is an award-winning journalist, poet, and a writer of fiction and non-fiction. She is the proud mother of one son and the grandmother of a beautiful and much beloved grand-daughter.

Quinita is also the principal of Qwrites: The Business of Writing, which provides mentoring and publishing services to writers.

Quinita is a former staff writer for the West Orange Chronicle in New Jersey and the author of The Power of Spirit: A Devotional Promoting Mental Health.

To learn more about Qwrites, visit the website at http://qwrites.weebly.com/

To reach Quinita, e-mail her at qwrites@hotmail.com.