The Liberation of Self

By RadicalGirlsss member Aleksandra Kusnierkiewicz

I was born a woman

And so I was born with shame.

The pain I had to endure

Determined by the Body -

Mysterious like a code

And foreign like a far-away land.

I still live on the margins

Float around and try to fit in places locked away from me.

But from the margins I can see

The pain of lock-down

The prison of separation;

Where is my female alliance?

Where is the liberation I seek?

And so I was reborn

From the disruption of questioning.

I took my body places

I grew on the margins

Like an ivy with no roots.

What freedom has awaited me!

I was born a woman, and a woman I’ll die.

But the borders you gave me

Are the prison of the past.