Did You Hear Her?

Did you hear her tears as she wept
Did you see her?
Did you feel the pain in her heart
Did you know her?

This is general and this is specific. This is for every man and for no man at all. This is the rage of a gender and the plea of a woman. This is the voice of a tear and the echo of a child's feet. This is from me to you, from us to them. This is for mothers with sons and fathers with daughters. This is for every woman who wants to feel beautiful and for every man who takes a second glance.

Did you hear her tears as she wept
Did you see her?
Did you feel the pain in her heart
Did you know her?

This is for the Queens of the world. In every shade and every shape. For the scarred and the scared. For the bold and the wise. For the revolutionary and the traditionalist. This is for every giver of life, the ripe tender fruit of your womb continuing the circle, the cycle. For the swell of your breasts as you feed our kin and hide in closed quarters in shame. For the stories of your tongue, the stories of your hips, your eyes, your hands. This is for your battles lost and those you've yet to win. But you will. This is for the eccentric thoughts in your mind, your hopes and dreams.

Did you hear her tears as she wept
Did you see her?
Did you feel the pain in her heart
Did you know her?

This is for our sons, our future Kings. Love her and know her and speak her name with honey on your lips. Tell her what this world could be and shield her from what it really is. Give her a piece of you and nurture every exhale she shares. Use your hands to wipe away the tears versus inflicting them. Kiss away the bruises versus gifting them. Call her name, call her name sweetly so she will come to you with eager anticipation. Remind her, every day until the end of days, that she is your equal. Your matching puzzle piece. Your mirrored image of hope.

Do you believe in God sir? Because if you do...God took a rib from Adam to create Eve...so she would walk beside him. He did not take a bone from his heel for her to be beneath him. Ask your God to clarify.

Did you hear her tears as she wept
Did you see her?
Did you feel the pain in her heart
Did you know her?

This is for our daughters, the soldiers of capturing the voice. Where we have failed, you will triumph and persevere. You will flee from cages of insecurity, you will dance freely and know your body and express your individuality with certainty and conviction. You will not be his slut or his whore or his conquest. You will not be his angel captured on a harpoon, dangling off cliffs edge while he gloats of his barbaric instincts. You will soar. You will taste the stars and make love on clouds and touch sands of far off places and sway in the eclipse of time into sunsets of days yet created.

Did you hear her tears as she wept

Did you see her?

Did you feel the pain in her heart

Did you know her?

This is for that man...you know who you are. Not under one name or one face but one type underneath it all. You have tainted rich soil, conquered and pillaged sacred land. You have created a superiority in your name and claimed sanction in corners of the world, yet you are everywhere. You will tower over the animals of this land and profess false prophecies of a God like stature because of your thumb. You soul-less entity. Because my cat has more compassion then you will ever know and my dog has more remorse then you will ever show. 

Did you hear her tears as she wept

Did you see her?

Did you feel the pain in her heart

Did you know her?

You will hide behind money, power and muscle mass. You will press her body down and take what is not yours. You will crush her bosom and pierce her lips with your own as you inject anguish into her every crevice. You will rape her mind far longer then her body. You will ravish her in dreams and eat away at her until she is skin and bones and bones and skin and skin and skin and scarred and ruined and pained and lost and forgotten. You will shadow her eyes and teach her that this is it, this is life, this is death. No man will love her, hold her, cradle her, forgive away every flaw upon her name. You will stomp out her light, snuff the candle and make a film about it. 

Did you hear her tears as she wept

Did you see her?

Did you feel the pain in her heart

Did you know her?

She is my future, my past. She is me and no one I know. He is every man I have ever met and every man I will avoid. He is what I will teach my son not to be. And in some other realm, I see her and she is free. She is without shackles and without daggers. She owns her essence and is euphoric in splendor of possibility. And there will be one, one to defy all others. One to touch her cheek and melt away those stains. He will whisper and elevate. She will know completion. She will taste the salt of tears seasoned with wonder. 

Did you hear her tears as she wept

Did you see her?

Did you feel the pain in her heart

Did you know her?

Be a light to the woman you know. Be that man. The one I know exists in dreams. For her, I will write him into life. I will teach him in every way. The burning embers of women shattered casts a decaying odor over us. But...he will touch one. Just one. And this moment, this one lost moment will not be in vain. My prince will be a King someday. And she will know ecstasy. Whoever she is...she will know and never have to.