Marie-Rose Romain Murphy sent me a message this week that buoyed my spirits and came at the perfect time:
I know how thankless and solitary … and heavy our type of work can be. It’s essential to pause and say thanks to the fighters/warriors.
So I’m honoring her warrior spirit by sharing her beautiful, honest poem on this Poetry Pause.
***
The Box
You tried to put me in a box because it was comforting to you,
because it was easier for you,
because you couldn’t see all that I was,
because, you didn’t want to see it.
You tried to put me in a box, because it was safer for you,
because I was “better explained that way”, more” easily contained”.
It was a solid industrial box with nails forged with the corrosive iron of prejudice.
It was like a safe box with a code that only others like you (others from your tribe) could understand.
But the box couldn’t contain my power. It struggled to stay together, but it just couldn’t.
To your great surprise, and to your great fear,
the box exploded, and its walls melted down to nothingness as I stood up tall in front of you,
and kept on growing to the giant height of my spirit, reaching for the sky, reaching for the sun
and blending with pleasure, relief and glory with the universe.
You tried to put me in a box… but (don’t you know?) it was never meant to be.
It was never my destiny and, I was never your enemy…
Marie-Rose Romain Murphy
***
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