Friday, January 29, 2016

Love Letters to my daughter

If ever my daughter
The one not born
Whose imaginary curls I style in my head
Even though my own fall careless around my face

The one whose own image resembles mine
So much that I can’t tell where she begins and I end

The one who will wear tutus and sneakers
angel wings and mismatch socks
Love nail polish and football

The one who is so real sometimes it is scary
The one who maybe once was
And isn’t

Could have been but wasn’t

Tells me she is too much..
Too big for some man
Or some woman
Or some job
Or some friendship
Or some teacher 
or some fear 
or some dream 

I will proudly say
WE are indeed that kind of woman
Too much is your legacy 
We are those kind of women

Loud shit talking
Quick witted sarcastic funny woman
Big women
Take up space woman
Magic laugh women
Neck rolls and whiskey women

We are well read sure of what we know
Kind of woman
Come from a line of smart woman
Like purses and poems women
Tea and fashion woman


Scared to stand down
Because we might get comfortable back there woman


Contradiction woman
Wild woman
Full of love women 


And I will tell her we fought to be all of who we are
that I fought to be all of who she is
and she will be all of who I am and more

I will tell stories of my own mother
so unsure of herself 
that I hated the traces of her I saw in my eyes 
until I learned to love myself better 
and could see her as strong in her own ways 

And my grandmothers

The model women 
The before her time woman
The taking care of everyone women 
and graceful 
fierce women 
who i model my life after woman 

And I will say we are all THAT woman

Tradition is weaving the story together to make sense
Coming to terms with your flaws and
choosing to love yourself anyway

Women who know that at some point her choices
Will be questioned
But her integrity can not be

Women who know that being yourself
Will sometimes cost you

And that her birthright to full
Humanity
Has been bought already
That she
And I
And we
Are already always enough