Another way to see the world:

 A reply to the Poem by Ntozake Shange "With No Immediate Cause"

by Sherry Holmes

I choose not to give any details but as a child I was sexually abused for many years. (not by my father. I have to say that because everyone assumes it and he is a good man.) I struggled with issues of hatred and self loathing for many years and I failed out of college and married a man who had no respect for me. I started feeling better when I stopped feeling sorry for myself and stopped wasting my time hating those who may have done me wrong. I got divorced, became a firefighter, went back to college, and met a man who thinks I hung the moon in the sky. I can honestly say that I have no regrets. My experiences are what made me who I am and I wouldn't change a bit of it. I am not saying that everyone should go through what I did, nor am I saying that my life couldn't have been worse. The thing is that life sometimes deals you a bad hand, but many a game has been won on a bad hand. What I am saying is that if I continued to feel constant rage and hatred and self pity, I would not be as happy as I am now. I am not saying you should trust every man you meet with no thought for your own safety, but to think horrible thoughts about them only tortures your soul, not the souls of those who deserve it. My reply to this Poem is called:

another way to see the world:

 A reply to the Poem by Ntozake Shange "With No Immediate Cause"

 Changes by Sherry Holmes
 

 Every 3 minutes a woman is adored, every five minutes a woman is kissed
every ten minutes a little girl is lifted onto the
shoulders of a loving uncle yet I rode the subway
 today I sat next to an old man who may have given his old wife
flowers 3
 minutes ago or 3 days/30 years ago he might have taken his
daughter out for ice cream
 but I sat there cuz the men on the train might help some young
women
 later in the day or tomorrow and I might shut my door too fast to
say thank you
 every 3 minutes it happens some women's laughter rushes to
 her husbands ears/pours from her mouth like the itsy bitsy bells on
her babies toys
 her mouth smiling /every three minutes a baby girl is found in her
fathers arms while he smiles at her tiny toes and tiny fingers
wrapped around his own.
 I rode the subway today
 and bought a paper from an east Indian man who might have held his
 lady tight and told her he loved her while she mourned the passing
of her mother/ I didn't know maybe he watches little
 girls in the park and remembers his own girl before she grew up
 I bought the paper looking for the announcement there
 has to be an announcement of the man who found the missing girl at
the zoo and reunited her with her parents
 I sat in a restaurant with my paper looking for the
 announcement a young man served me coffee I wondered did he pour
a glass of wine with a dinner served for his wifes promotion as he
smiled at her with pride

 There is some concern that battered women might start to hate all
other men
 "with no immediate cause"
 They will spit up screaming with all happiness taken from them and
no room for love...only hate
every day women find men who are loving and fair and good.

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Source: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mukto-mona/message/5370