Another Woman - Maya Spector

[Larry Robinson]

Another Woman


Another woman
would keep her mouth shut,
not spout fervent beliefs
like a speaker on a soapbox.

Another woman
would have chosen
equity over experience,
settling down or
just plain settling.

Another woman
would have stayed the course,
refusing distraction and
the pangs of the heart
that lead to upheaval.

Another woman
would not vacillate hearing
the voices that preach security and
the voices that harp on ideals.

Another woman
would not succumb to worry,
knowing that it never helps
and only constricts.

Another woman
would revel in her children’s independence
instead of mourning
their day-to-day absence in her life.

Another woman
would live in gratitude every moment
for her sojourn on this gorgeous planet
and not slip into the mundane
routine of forgetting.

But I am not
another woman.
I am this woman,
led by my heart and
pulled by conflicting voices,
a  woman who
worries,
mourns,
forgets.

I am this woman,
this aging, outspoken, heart-stirred,
frightened and sometimes grateful woman,
This woman,
with this particular life
and not another.

	- Maya Spector