LOVE Poem: words, by Makani Speier-Brito

I swallow and gulp down my words
the words stew in my gut
conceal any emotion other than
pleasant cloying joy.

What if we attempted the opposite?
Trample on the notion that women must be:
peppy, soft, joyful and pleasant
Every…waking…day.

They normalized us to bury
any unnecessary emotion.
They shaped the mask,
Weaved the corset
and laced us into it.

Rip off the mask
untie the corset.

Plug your voice back into the socket of your heart.

And in those moments when you feel that fear
creeping up and to slide back into the easy choice to remain quiet,
your words crippling you to the abyss of your gut,
I invite you:
Give the words an opening,
release them to the air
where they can breathe.

However ugly they seem, however dark stained with ink
(they are not as ugly as you may believe)