Images of Self

By Veronica Novy

When you look at me

What do you see?

If you could see my inner being what do you think it would look like?

I am a fire, I am a flame

There has been a torch within me that keeps my fire burning

When I think of me, I will tell you what I see

I will tell you what I want to be

I am lovely to my own eyes

I have journeyed to a new level of existence

I am beauty, I am desire

I can light the fire and put out the flame

I am a woman who has struggled for centuries

In a world full of images

My beauty is self contained and has been locked up for centuries

Silently waiting to erupt and escape to freedom

The image revealed to the world is sheer strength, noble and righteous

The woman that I wish to be in fact in reality has always been here

She now seeks an avenue, a pathway, a road that will lead her to the truth

Today, this woman is unafraid yet she still trembles with an unknown fear

Give her a reason to go on and questions her own existence as well as the norms of culture and society

And images

What was yesterday, in fact is not true today

Yesterdays truth will not lead us to tomorrow

The whispers, the echoes, the dreams, and the voices of my sisters past and present

Are beggin’ you to come listen

And make new choices for tomorrow

The woman today is ready for the challenge of today and tomorrow

The image of a Woman

My image is

Black

Strong

Real

Undeniable and beautiful

I am free

What you see

What you feel

What you sense what you hear are only fragments which encompass her whole body

The image is a total reflection

And that reflection is me!!!