Strong Woman

Sarah Beck Mather

A strong woman for dealing

With the dull pounding

Or is it future building?

            As we drive to salt mill.

Speaking of old age into death

And loneliness with memories forgotten

Over the marriage.

A strong woman to lie sleepless at night,

But still hold on as he whispers,         No No No.

To feel used by so many others,

A touch of renaissance.

A statue.

Did it mean something?         Does it mean something now?

I’m still here, remaining.

I became part of this salted-cream-rock,

Covered in clay and white paint.

I became part of the filigree,

Through the rivers

                        and tears

                                    and tantrums

Panic-in-the-back-of-a-taxi,

Night terrors in the kitchen.

I am a strong woman –

To mother as I have,

With the evidence destroyed.

                                                Watching all the others.

To contain all of the fear and worry,

To still remain here.

I have become part of the building,

With the sound that is now part of my own

Landscape.

Along with the pylons that make it more       Human.

Scared to walk under them,

                        But why should I be?

As a strong woman.

To deal with the pain              That a man truly goes through

As you pound the table, Demanding me to not.

            After all that,

I’m a strong woman because

I am here,        I am here.

Find Sarah on Instagram: @sarahbeckmather