Women Like Me...

... Build Themselves - a poem

Oof, friends. My summer took a left turn somewhere, and I needed lots of space to hold space for others. I’ve been very patient with myself as I slowly get back to my craft. I’m tinkering here, behind the scenes. All I know is that I need to figure out how to make creative writing a bigger part of my daily work life while supporting my children through this next big growth leap and keeping a roof over our heads.

I’ve been quite mindful lately of what we reveal publicly, the modern Greek forum being social media. What we have collectively agreed is acceptable to show and share, and all that lurks in the shadows of a life—all that is not shared despite our growing openness and acceptance, as a collective, of all things being on a spectrum.

Anyway, I am moody today, so I wrote down a poem. It’s based on something I said early on in my relationship with Rasheed that he so insistently wanted me to make into a t-shirt and sell. He was so keen on the idea that he made me a version for my 49th birthday. Maybe there’s merch in my future?

Women Like Me Build Themselves

by Nadine Araksi

"They broke the mold when they made you," he commented admiringly.

"Women like me build themselves," I shot back, proud.

There was no – assembly – line, 
no blueprint

Just the painstaking work of taking a sledgehammer
To the outdated plaster and lath structure of my life
That which upheld the stories and systems 
And coded all I'd learned about what it means
to be 
a wife
a mother
a woman

Years spent in my atelier,
reframing
rewiring
reassembling

Architecting a beautiful new home for my spirit,
Strong enough to withstand storms,
Warm, to shelter cold, hungry hearts,
Comfortable to ease weary bones.

Brick – by – loving – brick,
I remade her in my own image.

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