"To be human is to have a relationship with others that you can

control" - Oscar Allen.

FOR MARIA 1
Ashley R Cain
Your voice echoes in my memory
touching my desires, arresting my fancies
stirring a dream and hope
that I hear the voice of woman
strong in yourself and your consciousness
of yourself and your worth
as woman.
"I am a conscious woman!
with tantalising eyes,
exciting!
Am I not?"
"How do you feel when you hold me in your arms?
What do you see when you look into my eyes,
or smear lipstick in the heat of a kiss?"
"Am I just another heart to be conquered,
body to be used and cast aside
without honour without respect,
disregarding my struggle to be woman,
ignoring my hopes,
my future,
my plans to plant footsteps,
indelibly, in the shifting sands of my country's future?"
"Do you see me as woman,
equal to man?
or the bearer of child after child
fruits of your frustration
your anguish
your sorrow -
your myopic vision of what it means to be man?
"Or do you see a new era staring at you,
through my eyes?
Do you feel it through my unwillingness
to be caught in the mesh of a lust
that degrades, dehumanises,
and cheapens me as woman?"
1 The early 80's were a period dominated by concerns about women's rights, male female relationships and creating space
for equitable development of men and women. When we see the progress that our women today are making it is
interesting and begs the question- are our women losing our men today. In 1983 I too was challenged by my own
relationship with an emerging Caribbean woman. This poem was the result of such reflections.
"Do you feel in me, the strength of a nation?
Can you begin to sense the revolution,
passing through the land,
reversing the abuses of woman by man?"
"Can't you feel through my body,
trembling under your touch,
the love of woman
constant through countless generations,
balancing your excesses
soothing your troubles
sharing your distress, your happiness
begging your recognition of me as woman"?
"........ .?"
Your voice echoes in my memory ..........
Your words linger in my mind
and I stand like a man
staring at the future
like a sea before him,
sharing your protest,
with a prayer that I stand without shame,
without guilt,
unaccused.