Orland Park Prayer Center

The Prayer Center of Orland Park

A step from men and
being kept from mention
Woman is the literal definition of prevention
The world better be ready to pay your pension
cause now’s the time you retire from the less than

Ever since Day One you’ve been nothing but a nuisance
And you knew since your influence didn’t make a difference
Inferiority was just the inference
You went and picked up when you were back in the past tense

Day Two came and your life’s still the same
You’re an adolescent girl, but you bring home the blame
Hear echoes like in seashells, but no oceans, just shame
Drowning in the salt, socials slandering your name
They say you should’ve known better than the girl Mama raised
But life should’ve been better than the boys Baba trained

A step from men and
being kept from mention
Woman is the literal definition of prevention
The world better be ready to pay your pension
cause now’s the time you retire from the less than

A mistaken woman is a forsaken woman
A pained woman is a stuck-at-the-window-pane woman
Her strength to endure pain makes her a grateful woman
But for her to try to procure change makes her a hateful woman
Why do you label women?
Why make up fable women?
Say she’s over emotional and an unstable woman,
When you were made by women
When you were raised by women
Men are born through the pain of women
Men are not made to carry like women

That’s why sword that sticks you is too heavy for his hold
Too much to be contained, too high to be controlled
Fenced by expectations, but he was never once told,
never taught, never learned how to cope within the molds
Emotion was effeminate so he had to withhold
Hard heart to start fires like the burning of coal
Embers and dust were the remnants of his soul
Everywhere you looked, he had gaping black holes

A step from men and
being kept from mention
Woman is the literal definition of prevention
The world better be ready to pay your pension
cause now’s the time you retire from the less than

Pac said keep ya head up so you’ll be closer to the stars
Freedom from imprisonment lies in shadows of jail bars
Collected calloused body, strong soft heart,
every hit you take is another battle scar

“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee,”
just like in the words of Muhammad Ali,
I repeat them and add a Part Three:
“Be the woman you were meant to be.”
You were meant to be, so take a step from oppression
Cause every step you take will be a step to heaven.

By Mariam Ramahi

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