My skin was not meant to be ivory

My skin was not meant to be ivory,
my hair not meant to be silk.
My eyes are not precious sapphire,
and these hands are no delicate tools of tenderness -
stitching and stroking their path
to a life of feminine pride.

My way is a life of creation:
of sketching and stretching
and prying and painting
with no heed for female convention.

I care not for the paint
that most daily apply –
the farcical face:
deception with a sigh.

My paint is the substance of my soul –
the liquid heart of my dreams,
the pigment of my very breath.

I cannot change to satisfy,
I will not try to be the one
who bears the life, the family care –
a woman’s cautious world of nails and hair –
Don’t Touch!

Donia Lilly
16 january, 2002