For Those Women

This one is for those women
those who bend their backs for men
who come home at night
smelling like darkness and the forest
breathing like hunting wolves
this is for those women
who at 18 years old
we call them antys
because they have walked through the clouds
their hair turned grey from
dancing with the cold
for those women who close their eyes
knowing that even in dreams
they are the women that women
like you and me
look through
do not see
do not greet
for those women who became women at 12
who look out for brothers
brothers that were sat and told
"you are the man of the house"
yet these women never become
women of the house
never receive glory or pensions
expected to not whimper when the world
becomes a little too heavy
slouching their posture
for those women whose bellies are stretched
from carrying us
too many times yet
we are not acquainted with their intestines
do not say Thank You
do not say Forgive me
do not say I see you
this is for those women whose eyes
are black holes
swallowing up pain like
it was not matter
carrying their sorrow in their skin
like cells
for those women whose mouths are graveyards
of buried words
haunted memories
i pray
i pray i do not carry a woman
in my body when i am woman
enough
there aren't enough bones to break
in my body enough to hold a woman in
enough to hold the wrath passed from my blood
to my blood
this is for those women who give birth to daughters
that become women before they can walk
who break their hearts praying still
for daughters, they know
they know only a woman
can hold a woman.