Women deserve better

Poetry

Naomi Parris
Naomi Parris

Naomi Parris, a 19-year-old graduate of Hope Secondary School was born at Nabaclis on the East Coast Demerara. She grew up in Victoria, Guyana’s first Village and currently resides at Belfield with her mother and grandmother. Her love for creative writing began when her First Form English teacher,  Melisa Adams, required that her students create notebooks of Short Stories and poems. In Naomi’s case she stuck with her notebook long after she left school.

A self-confessed introvert, Naomi says that she “doesn’t do well in social situations” and “rarely leaves the house.” It’s an issue, she says which she “needs to work on” given that exposure enhances her creative passion. “Most of my time,” she says, “is spent with my pen… my mind ignites after midnight. That’s when I really write.”

I rather not have it                                                            

 If your love is of bruised skin

And kisses that taste like liquor,

If your love is I’m sorry it won’t happen

again.

If your love is fist to cheek

rather than lips.

I don’t want it.

She will be loved

She will be loved,

Maybe not by the hands of your demons,

But by the heart of a gentle one.

She will be loved.

A cry for help

Sshhh…be quiet listen.

I said be quiet!

Maybe if we all listened

we could have saved her from

drowning.

For better or for worse

I was never made to be bruised by your fists,

or torn by your words.

I was made for you to love

To cherish.

For better or for worse

and this is the worse

 and I can no longer let you break

the little that is left of me.

For better or worse, I’m leaving for the better of me.

Dinner

The table is set for dinner

white plates and silver cutlery sitting precisely

on the table.     

Silence in the air as if death himself is a guest

among us.

Daddy has that look on his face again and so does mommy.

Hers is different from his, shattered much like a bird with broken wings,

And he was the vigorous wind that broke her.