If you loved it, you prolly won't like my take in this poem. But I could care less. I watched and this is what bubbled up at the end. That movie...smh...well you'll see my opinion.
To Whom It May Concern
I see my shattered reflection in the same mirror that I punched yesterday
‘Cause I couldn’t stand the sight of my own soul
And closing my eyes was still a mirror
Because the back of my eyelids still screamed that it was me.
Then you turned around and shoved the same thing back down my throat.
In a movie, no less, that was supposed to be entertainment;
Yet it was really a chronicle of abuse with no end to the torment.
Not even a helpline number at the end to refer me to any hand at all.
You cannot tell me that you made it to inform other people,
Or that you wanted me to see myself on the screen
And come to some kind of realization of the mistakes that I continually make.
The folks in the community are the main ones that watched it.
My sister and I, we KNOW the issues.
Who wants to see themselves on screen with no solution and left in the same mess?
No hope of return or redemption or even a ladder to where you are;
Just a flashlight shone down from your mighty pedestals above.
So if you want to make a movie that will MOVE folks,
Then go ahead and lead the way to somewhere better.
Let us visit your promise land and taste the grapes not born from wrath.
Don’t just pan over the same path we’ve all tread!
Because I, we, she are all too familiar with
How we keep returning to the shattered mirror day after day
And it’s still there staring back at me…
Broken and shattered but not torn down, not replaced.
And it still functions,
But not in the way that it’s supposed to.
But I can still do my make up if I lean to the side and twist my face up
To fit in the largest piece of the cracked glass that STILL reflects my brokenness.
So with all due respect to your blood bought stardom and honors,
Don’t sit on your high horse and point at my issues
As if when you come home, you don’t come in the community bathroom behind me
And squint and tilt your head until you find the piece of mirror that makes you look best!
Because in the limelight you may prance like the finest Arabian show horse,
But back in the stables, you still pull the same cart that you
Hitched to the little sister who had to portray a whore in your movie
Just to see the underside of your pedestals.
Copyright ©2011 Natasha Guy
i like the concept of the mirror and its connection to identity. i do agree that for colored girls is a little hard to watch. however, for me, it truly encompassed the stories of Ntozake Shange's choreopoem. i am getting the impression that you wanted a solution at the end. sometimes, i think we do not know the solution, but we can trace the pathology of the pain that brings many to their knees. so yes, for colored girls was not a "feel-good" movie. however, i think sometimes art is only there to expose, and the people must learn and build from that.
ReplyDeletethe last stanza is my favorite!
Yeah, you pegged me; I truly did want a solution at the end. I feel like so much of it is updated for modern times, that surely since the 70s we've learned something...if not only to offer hope. It was not a feel good movie, but I wanted it to either be left in the time it was made, or brought fully to the current time. I'm just not a limbo type of person I guess.
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking the time to read and leave input :) Always appreciated!
It is bothersome to see the image that some portray and expect us to accept within their self indulged ramblings on the screen. Pointing out all the problems and acting as if the solution is limited. I love the take you took with the poem. And like your other reader, the last stanza is gold.
ReplyDeleteThank you again Charlotte!
ReplyDelete