I am a girl shaped by tongues in the wrong place.
I am a child moulded by insisting fingers.
I am a girl forced by composure, by artifice, by superficiality, by silence.
I am a child threatened by yawping mouths, unchewed food, vibrating bodies.
I am a woman tormented by absence, by solitude, by womanliness, by pain.
I am a girl haunted by old terrors, vagrant poisons, night-time faces and ruins.
I am a woman dusting herself off, cutting off cords, disentangling herself from untruths.
I am a girl harassed by overarching tears, emotions explosive, a lack of love and care.
I am a woman trying to integrate us all, recuperate what had almost been smothered.
I am a child so fearful, so anxious, so worried and fatalistic, so self-reliant and frail.
I am a woman formed of opposites, of blasphemy, mistrust, a heavy sadness, ivy.
I am a child accompanied by screams, spit, beatings, threats and tyranny.
I am a woman who escaped determined tirades, destructive male figures, faint kindnesses.
I am a girl rediscovering everything she deemed lost and vanquished.
I am a woman reuniting us all in love, in solidarity, indivisibility, solace and warmth.
I am a girl standing tall, saying no when I please, courageous, loud and imaginative.
“Pallas Athena” attributed to Rembrandt (1606-1669)
