She Is Woman

She is woman — a woman of
courage, purpose, perseverance.
She does not buckle before
those who tell her to keep
still.

✨

She may never appear in headlines
or walk a red carpet;
she’s not signed a tantalizing
contract, crooned on local radio,
or been verified on Twitter.

✨

Yet her voice holds authority for
she has embraced life — not hidden from,
denied, or vilified it, but filled her
bosom with its lacerations and losses
without shame. 

✨

Grit and grime have etched deep
canyons into visible surfaces,
gouged ravines into the caverns of
her soul creating a permeable silhouette
of hope

✨

which invites all to
lean in, listen closely,
choose the wisdom she
carries within her humble
breast. 

✨

She may live with a stigma
foisted upon her by others which
she relentlessly rejects, for
no aggressor will wield such
power

✨

over her. She will rise; she will square
her shoulders, draw from her sisters,
call for her tribe and together they
wrestle and struggle, weep and cry out
until the heavens weep, too.

✨

Drenched with the tears of angels
she will turn her face into the storm,
welcoming the ugly force which
sneers at her davidic frailty against its
bloated power,

✨

— power that is insignificant
in the presence of strength.
When strength, borne of adversity,
fashioned in the crucible of the
night 

✨

meets power in the arena,
all hold their breath. Power preens,
struts, taunts, humiliates while
strength stands its holy ground
without fear.

***

© Julia Penner-Zook, 2019
Photo Credit: Julia Penner-Zook
Twitter: @J_Pennz
Instagram: @j_penner_zook