I Am A Woman

not bound by chasms, racism, fascism
I am the stream trickling
from the peyote cactus
in the dry dead of the Sahara,
The sand storm that sanitizes
every stained spot in its wake.

I rise from the South, East,
North and West.
Under the camels hump
I am shadowed from the
sweltering sun at noon
and clothed for the damp dead of night.
I shake the dust from burdens dragged through the evening heat.

The hiss of the desert monitor
stills not my focus.
Like the hooves of a
rhim gaselle are my feet -
sure yet soft.

Caves and burrows shield
my dignity in drought.
and the waking croc smiles at my courage as the rains wash away
my dried tears.

I am a Woman

I stand tall and fall,
My exploits are as the twist
in every tornado and
when morning comes
I rise to meet the scorpion dead on.

I rise -
from the desert sun -
from the dry savanna scapes
I am the wisdom of the rock hyrax
that moves with my sisters while we
forage for the hungry world around us.

When the viper comes out to play
I become a ferocious cheetah who protects her young.

Like a twist in a tornado,
I rise from the South, East,
North and West.

This I do because

I am,

a Woman.

(C)  Jambiya Kai