My own tongue was silenced for many years.
Something wrong with you if you use your voice.
I was kept quiet by family fears.
Heavens! It was not a part of my choice.
People do things without their meaning to.
It is just part of an outlook on life.
Just what society thinks is your due.
What would life be without lingering strife?
There is comfort in defining people.
Others do this and it gives them relief.
That is how man climbs his lofty steeple.
Graciousness! It is man’s hidden belief.
A perspective on ourselves can we glean?
Can we feel competent and simply pleased?
Is it all a matter of a smokescreen?
Questions to answer for us to live eased.
I was defined through society’s men.
And I wish now to use my ready pen.
© 2018 Ana Celia Velez Rios
