I have always encouraged other writers to be part of my blog and always am eternally grateful for their contribution. This next writer is more than a woman, she is a super woman and having to get to know her is a privilege. enjoy this next poem by Tarin Glenn Brown and feel free to comment.
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“They tell me I’m strong
Tell me I’m a strong woman
Strong for putting up with the shit dished out to me on what’s becoming a regular basis now
Strong for looking blatant disrespect and selfishness in the eye..,and turning the other cheek
I’m strong for leaning more towards acts of patience rather than hells fury unleashed
They say I’m a better person for accepting the trash meted out to me; accepting the lame ass excuses that ooze like pus from an infected wound
Infected
Subjected
Used
Like the waste disposal unit cruising down the street
That’s how tainted and dissilusioned I’m slowly beginning to feel
Feel
Feelings
Damaged emotions
I’m strong because I get up every morning like its business as usual
Getting through the day firing on all cylinders
Or maybe just one
They say I’m strong
I’m a strong black woman
Raising a generation of what exactly?
I can’t be too sure since I’m raising them alone
Alone
Lonely
Abandoned
My soul feels like its being ripped apart at the seams
The silent screams now beginning to echo…..out loud….around me
I’m strong for keeping the truth of how close I am to the edge…to myself
I’m strong for believing in a God who would stand back and allow me to suffer like this
I’m strong for holding on to the hope that one day it will be worth it
I’m strong for seeing what no-one else sees and trusting that love will see all things through
Strong
Strong?
What a joke!
I’m dying inside..cell by molecular cell.
There’s nothing strong about me…..nothing except the strength of this lie that is my present life”
by Tarin Glenn Brown
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About the author
ouch! I liked the beginning a lot, it got me going. Thing is I am sort of writing something similar. LOL, funny, I meet a lot of people who call me strong too. The translation I have learned is; “don’t count on me girl, you’re doing good, don’t ask me for nothing” and then they take what of you they may or can and leave you behind ha ha ha
I’m assuming the end got you puzzled …I’m acutally with you on the leaving part as emotional creatures we always end up with the smaller end of the stick
First the poem was really good and it is a great example how words can be such a powerful force ….my question to the poet is why did they choose to end the poem as there is nothing strong about them after indicating all these examples….my fav line is “I’m strong for believing in a God who would stand back and allow me to suffer like this ” which was very deep…and its takes alot of faith trust courage and strengh to believe in an awesome GOD….
very good question Lady B I will ask her for you
@Lady B: well because the truth of the matter is alot of us out there will never see themselves as strong no matter how others view them…I pointed out all the positive things that make her appear to be strong but at the end I showed that deep down inside the very strength she seems to be exhibiting is a very real weakness (at least to her) because it keeps her, for want of a better word, shackled to the thing/person/circumstance that is destroying her emotionally. In a sense her very ‘strength’ is her own kryptonite.