I Am Woman
By Chloe Williams

I heard a voice within me last night,
And with waking, gleaming eyes, I rose to face it.
“I am woman”, it said, and then …
“But I am so much more”.
I reached out to touch
That chorusing sound,
Light and lithe with its simple phrasing
But the possibility of it was much too great.
With shattering promise,
It rose above me just out of reach.
It said, “You must claim this, you must earn this, you must transcend this
To keep this truth safe
Within your grasp.”

On pages of magazines, newspapers and
Timely gossip
That voice becomes a trite reprise:
A reminder of a hollowed and empty shell facsimile.
That voice blares on like a radio wave,
Produced for the masses
Tinny and thin.
On the painted lips, conformed to move and frozen
In brilliant technicolor, sound comes, but the
Words
Have no weight.
These words do not resound like the voice
Does within me.
Its genuine and triumphant noise cannot be so.
“I am woman,” it said, and then …
“But I am so much more”.
Under misrepresented guise, and broken vestiges
Of hard and tireless work,
What have we earned?
What have we claimed; disclaimed?
What have we become?

You see, I rose in that night
With a sound of my own,
Prepared to meet its calling like so many before.
I cast the paper thin images aside
And deep within me knew that I could fulfill
What was asked of me,
And not deny.
And with a voice that was strong and clear
And so wondrously mine, I chose to reply:

I have the capacity to give life,
to heal the sick and change societies.
I have the will and the right to speak up and be heard
And the ability to be quiet, waiting, watching and wanting with sage wisdom
I have the capacity to love whomever and accept love in return
And the ultimate, yearning drive to be fearless, boundless,
Legendary:
“I am woman,” I said, and then …
“But I am so much more”.