over and over a woman is told that she's not what she seems to be at first she fights this I am she says what I seem to be: sand, twigs, stones, and waves of disturbed air through which a bird had just flown, also light refracted from the lid of a syrup tin the disc of light wobbles on the floor and ceiling

she begins to have second thoughts perhaps after all she has not what she seems: a laurel hedge, a butterfly flagging on the beach, a scale from the wrong of that butterfly, a rhubarb bush, the oiled wheel of a train

she could indeed be something not yet mentioned not yet named for always she tells herself before you have finished naming a thing the meaning has changed no one can speak as fast as a thought darts across the mind no one can speak faster than the sound of words

I'm not what I seem to be she confesses at last then a warm subservience floods through her and she becomes the fluent shadow of any names we may choose to throw at her

#MightyPoets #Poem #Poetry #fave #Feminism #equality #EmotionalAbuse