good girls don't talk back

growing up in a tradition

where young girls are silenced

and kept busy with dolls and pretend food

our voices were lost 

in our childhoods

we were taught to find pride amongst other things –

to find it 

in our silky black hair

our almond shaped windows to our souls

our petite-framed bodies

and our silence

but as i break through the intergenerational barriers

of my family’s traditions and customs

i realize that my voice is as beautiful

as what the grown ups say about my 

pretty little face

my voice is soft but it is firm

after a childhood of suppression

it breaks through the surface –

like a freshly sprouted plant through a bed of soil,

and it grows stronger and more resilient 

i now reclaim what was always mine

the voice inside that told me to keep going 

when i felt like i couldn’t

the voice inside that told me to leave

when he was torching me up in gas-lit fires

the voice inside that told me 

that it was created for greater things –

for things that were bigger than me

and now it speaks proudly to audiences

about the education of healthy relationships for teenage girls

about the importance of all-inclusivity for people with disabilities

about the solutions and resources to help end child marriages

about first-hand experiences in working with children with Autism

about the cherished memories made with refugee students

my voice was silenced in my childhood

SO IT CAN ROAR THROUGHOUT THE REST OF MY LIFETIME.

SO IT CAN SPEAK ABOUT THE UNSPOKEN OF HUMANITY.

good girls don’t talk back

but great women do.