a woman
deaf to her innervoice
cannot sing aloud
she cannot sing aloud
the truths swirling in her belly

and were she a man
he would shatter around
the song he could not sing
fearing his voice to be
quieter than hurricanes

and were she Black
she’d carry that muted song
beneath fields where her
siblings swung like grotesque bells
on a land whispered in the ears of corn
she nurtured but could not feed
her frail children

and were she homosexual
her song would falter
as it sat on the last pew;
witnessing Samson hurl pillars
from the pulpit–
her inner voice rending the silence
after the crumbling temple
decided Delilah should no longer
have breath to speak

a woman
having been silenced
to the detriment of her womb

a woman
having been silenced
to the detriment of her ego

a woman
having been silenced
to the detriment of her labor

a woman
having been silenced
to the detriment of her sacred places

digs through the debris of man’s pride,
with calloused hands and open wounds,
to free her voice from the rubble

of man’s ego

-Rahk.