Yesterday & Today
a girl longs
to hear her father
sing her eulogies around the table,
hold out his arm
& toss her a gun. a day
when the sun paints
lilac at noon & does
a madness in starched cold.
a girl craves
her feet walking 3 miles
before a baby brother. she
doesn't fit the boots,
give to her baby brother
still in the diapers that she
wears him, & he'll walk a 6 mile
that would sweat her femininity.
a girl cannot
not be a puppet. she
should kiss her lips red
& serve food to the men, her
baby brother seats, he
should eat. he wears the shoe,
he knows where it pinches.
a girl has a window &
she peeks through its lenses
of submission to see
her world in chaos.
painted to finesse, carved
to perfection, blowing
hot air against her ego.
a girl tells her story
on nights when the skies
shine enough to illuminate
her esteem. in stripes of
blurry grays, she finds her
confidence when she sleeps.
there's a world of her own.
a girl draws
misfortune if she will
not sit amongst humans
as her— in flayed gowns and
cherry lips and bowed heads
and bent knees— a girl is
rebellious. throw her to the streets.
a girl is a woman.
you wouldn't meet her bent
over heat: something about
owning an office, cocking
her gun. a woman walks 6
miles for the growing girls
behind her, they see a path.
Chidinma 'Dee' Iwu likes to write about women. She likes to think she would pass for a stand-up comedian in a reverse world where she has 12 sisters. Her words are in publications like The daily dot, Black Balled, Brittle Paper, Love Happens Mag & more. She's on Twitter @TheDinmaaa, tweeting spontaneously and wishing there's better for her sistas.