Women In Darkness

Fighting to stay hungry for life,
In darkness,
Chains cutting through gang green brown black skin,
The smell of death choking from without,
The sound of fury raging deep within,

Fighting to keep master’s hands off their back,
Fighting to keep their skirts from off the ground,
Fighting to hide the baby’s color from dejected and angry housemates,

Fighting to avoid wrath,
“Woman where’s my dinner”
“Woman I’m a get my belt!”
“Woman you’re just a low down, dirty ______”
“Woman if you don’t, if you don’t, if you don’t!”

Fighting to live on child support,
Fighting the temptation to sell bodies for bread,
Fighting the smell of death choking from without,
The sound of fury raging deep within,

Women in Darkness,
Fighting,
My  Great great grandmother, her mother, and her mother.
Fighting dark in darkness,
Raging for a new tomorrow.
Copyright © | Year Posted 2007

Poem

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