Joumana Haddad "I am a woman"

Published by Sarah Uzunlar, ProMosaik Poetry 

I Am A Woman - Joumana Haddad 

No one can guess

what I say when I am silent,

who I see when I close my eyes,

how I am carried away when I am carried away,

what I search for when I reach out my hands.

Nobody, nobody knows

when I am hungry, when I take a journey,

when I walk and when I am lost.

And nobody knows

that my going is a return

and my return is an abstention,

that my weakness is a mask

and my strength is a mask,

and that what is coming is a tempest.

They think they know

so I let them,

and I happen.

They put me in a cage so that

my freedom may be a gift from them,

and I'd have to thank them and obey.

But I am free before them, after them,

with them, without them.

I am free in my oppression, in my defeat

and my prison is what I want.

The key to the prison may be their tongue.

But their tongue is twisted around my desire's fingers,

and my desire they can never command.

I am a woman.

They think they own my freedom.

So I let them,

and I happen.