anne • sikking

International Women's Day - 2023

 

BRANDED

for the girls attending the SHE programme at Gilded Lily

in Govan, Glasgow, Scotland – March 2023

​

When young, our blank pages fill day by day,

seared by stages with words THEY say:

the cruel, the kind, the thoughtless drivel...

...brands a mind, makes words a missile.

 

Armed, defensive, our lives made small,

we're soon offensive, quick to maul.

Chapters from our bruised lives

can make us raptors – “Bring out the knives!”

 

I see us bold, have another view,

and hold a vision of me and you,

where we yield no ground, give up no mark,

sing out our sound, move from the dark.

 

For while we can't erase what THEY write,

I see us taser it with our light.

I see you choose where you look.

and lose the branding of THEIR book.

​

first published March 8, 2023