I AM A WOMAN

Nobody can guess

What I say when I am silent,

Whom I see when I close my eyes,

How I am carried away when I am carried away,

What I search for when I stretch 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

And I let them think so,

And I speak.

They put me in a cage so that

My freedom may be a gift from them,

And I have to thank them and obey.

But I am free before them,

after them,With them, without them.

I am free in my suppression,

in my defeat.

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.

I let them think so,

And I speak.

by Joumana Haddad (b. 1970)

I love this poem, think its is wonderful ! It captures the essence of what a woman is all about!!!!

So powerful and profound!