My Daughters
This is one of a pair of poems written when an ex ,with whom I’d had a stormy relationship, came to visit me. I was so angry I wrote 2 of my best poems. The first poem is called `My Sons`
My Daughters belongs to the following groups:
African Art and Photography, All Things Poetic, Artistic, Philosophical, Live, Love, Dream, Something To Say, United Kingdom and WMGMy Daughters
Woman, wife, girlfriend,
other half, better half,
piece, bit, whore, keeper, baby mother,
I have watched you suffer,
I have watched you stand firm with my sons,
I have waited anxiously with you for his return,
I have heard you scream when they lynched him,
I have seen you abused,
Nurse and murderer
Bearer of Massa’s children
in the fields at sunset.
I have heard you stifle the pain when he was humiliated,
belittled, castrated: it was our pain
When you chose not to bring another life into slavery
my heart ached with you
My daughters when you turned to Jesus
I rejoiced with you,
Lamp-bearer on the railroad,
bearer of his children,
baring your breasts for freedom
educating our children,
Strong, Firm, Proud,
Yet when all was still I heard your silent cry,
Nefertiti, Cleopatra, Nzinga,
Sojourner, Harriet, Nanny, Mary, Angela
My daughters, I watched you from eggs to dust
With my sons, come home.
c. Shirley P Cooper aka Sisi 1991
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