Sabra's Poetry

The character for my new novel, Witch, has started to write poetry... in my head.  And so I'm going to leave these here to just.. be.

Beauty

by Sabra McGovern

Beauty walks on glass

The careful steps to make it right

The painful process where we

straighten something curly

Curl something straight, 

Oil something dry, 

Use potions to try out

Prick and poke and pluck and paint

Just to feel

That things can make us perfect

Without realizing perfection

Is just the way we are

And beauty is attitude

Not skin.

Prayer

by Sabra McGovern

I pray that you give me strength

to not kill the moron who

sits in front of me in English; 

to overcome that feeling that

I get where my hand tightens,

and my fist curls, and my body

tenses as he guffaws at the

moron who has stuck an "I'm

gay" sign to the back of a friend

in front of him.

I pray that you give me bravery to

stand up in front of the class

and instead of assaulting this

pudgy faced moron in front of me

with hands

I can assault them with words; 

words that will shame him and blame him

for making the kid who sits in the corner

squirm with embarrassment

because he's too offended to say "Hey, I'm gay

and that shouldn't be an insult."

I pray that you give me peace

to take on the chorus of 

voices that cry out against my opinions

that say it is just a word

that say it is just a word that

we use in fun..."It just means happy....right?

Right, in the same way that  nigger just means 

black person and WOP is just an Italian guy.

A slur is a slur, sir, and words can hurt.

I pray that you give me the wisdom to show that

while a knife or a gun

can break my skin

a word is a weapon

that breaks the spirit

which can be even more deadly.