I am a poet
I write poems with no ending
because I can’t get those lines
to speak dearly enough to me
to punctuate my thoughts.
I am a poet
I don’t rhyme and
I usually don’t have a flow
I have notebooks with
Pages stained with tears
and scribbled handwriting
because at that moment
my hand no longer wrote
my heart spoke.
I am a poet
I go days without writing
and envy those who
stand behind mics with poems
and not afraid to perform.
I am a poet
I mock the rhythm of the greats
and struggle with individualism
I wear my hair in a bush
huge bronze earrings and
brass bangles on my wrist
because that’s what we look like.
I swear, I am a poet
I find ways to shovel out
the deepest part of your brain
and play with your thoughts
and most of the time
even I don’t know what it means
but, I am a poet
because my voice is mine
and without it
I remain the muted revolutionary
who is imprisoned by
the lies that her mind
uses to confine her creativity.
I am silenced by brokenhearts,
discouragement and insecurity
I, too, am a poet.