Knock & Enter

By Sterling

When you enter into a woman

You can’t feel her pain

You can’t see the

heaviness of the earth

Daunting on her

Her anguish is like a dark shadow

casted over her flowers

Named joy and self confidence

They haven’t been watered in a while

Nor have they seen the sun

But you are prepared to fertilize her lotus

Spraying small

delicacies of lust and infatuation

Don’t you really see?

That behind the sensual fragrance

Which had you in mid-air floating to her

Are bruises and scars

On the same skin that soaks up that sweet scent

Don’t you see?

a broken mind

and a torn heart

The waters of her eyes run so much

that they fill up the tub where she soaks

In mint and lavender oil

And when finally

She gets up

She wraps herself in lace and bows

And every night you come

She is always there to great you

With a smile on her face

And mango sweet kisses

Ready for you to enter her

And distract her soul once more

From the fact that she has lost so much

And gained so little

From the men that come around

just like you do

and knock on her door

Sterling is a nursing student turned poet who fell in love with poetry while exploring her small lived time in journalism. Her work reflects her appreciation for both classical and contemporary poetry as she therapeutically purges her emotions about love, abuse, and her place as a black woman in society. IG: @s.a.w.literature