Truth is Empowerment
“I’m never a reliable narrator, unbiased or objective. Anthony Bourdain”
This poem speaks truth,
it does not imagine something.
it does not say,
this is what I imagine addiction,
murder, prostitution, or farming to be like.
This poem opens its mouth and says what really happened.
my mother told me years ago:
always speak truth, never tell a lie.
color it some if you must, the way you
color a page in a coloring book but
never tell a lie.
I was in a spelling bee and ended up
facing off a 5th grade boy.
He couldn’t spell “psychology”.
I spelled it correctly. I won a big blue ribbon.
I took it home and told my mother
I almost didn’t spell it because I liked the boy,
he had always been nice to me.
That is when she told me to always be truthful
my father nodding in agreement.
So years later when a lover gave me a wakizashi
I was proud. He taught me how to wield it.
Once I used it to defend my home when someone broke in.
My husband did not say,
you could have killed yourself.
He smiled and hugged me.
Truth is empowerment.
A sword is empowerment.
Spelling a word correctly is empowerment.
Truth is empowerment.
This poem speaks truth.
kanzen sakura 