To be a woman...

Do you see me?

Standing here, look clearly

I am what it is to be a woman

Thanks to her

I am not your definition

I am not what he made me



Just thinking of what it is to be a woman makes me think

Of all the women in my life,

Those I admire who have come so far in this life

Despite circumstances and much strife



There are no lyrics here

No poems or quips, soliloquies

There is only strength in the name of what would make any man weak



She first arrived in 78 a mother, alone to change her life

Left those she loved behind to bring them at another time

Across oceans she floated

Thru the sky she flew with fear in her gut

But you would never know it though her mission was rough

Illegal woman, no papers just pretence

Face of iron, will of steel

The woman I admire most lives in here



She is my mother

Alone she arrived leaving her children far behind

To build a life no man would provide



Born of goddess blood

Dominican to the bone

If bitch had been a name she

Would have made it her own



From state to state and factory to factory she roamed

Pushing suits by the hour

To acquire enough money to bring us home

That’s a fucking woman

Not the bullshit you see now,

Afraid to do real work

Don’t want to mess up that hair or have sweat on your brow



You want a renaissance woman

Ill introduce you to my mother

No man can measure, undermine or over power

Still beautiful, more elegant than any flower



Fierce as a tigress

Created her own progress

No one gave her the bacon, she brought it home

And made sure she supplied it

For the ones she bred and in her tired state

Made sure we never went to bed without it



Fear need not apply here

Don’t pity her; she’s liable to laugh at you

Conditioned by lack of fathers

She can drink you under the table, make dinner

And yes beat the hell out of a motherfucker



To us she was more than mother

She was father

Gave us love, discipline

Protected us thru failure like no other

Not a sperm donor

She’s a provider

A miracle maker

The life supplier

Bringing up a doctor, a roughneck

And this writer



You want to ask me

The definition of woman

I’m just an apprentice

I can give you her number

You can call her.