To Be A woman

A small black forest I used to play
as a child,
Fearless and wild,
I now wince with every crackling stick
My feet tread on.
Once filled with joy,
I am now filled with fear,
Of the unknown, of the dark, of the dangerous,
Like a deer.
A much loved man
Leaps across the forest floor
And pins me against the toothy bark
And I know
I am powerless.
This is a man’s world
Not because man claimed it
But because of the dialogue
The words we use
The girls we abuse
This is a man’s world and men don’t even know it.
I can’t blame them I suppose
For privilege cannot be seen by those who have it
My history has been written by a white man on a high horse
And until he is done with me,
Here I stay,
In the underwood,
Feeling the rhythmic cracking of my feet
Being slammed.
This is what it means to be a woman,
To fear and to be blamed and to be silent.
-LLB