Poetry

Women I Am Not

I am not openly emotional.

I do not profess my feelings

like an eager dog,

begging for a tummy-stroke.

I am no Marianne,

for I have no faith in disposition, or intimacy.

I can neither give my heart as fully

nor as willingly as she.

I do not envy Juliet,

wrapped up in a story of hopelessness

with a boy determined to be destroyed by love.

I am neither Elizabeth nor Jane,

because my patience has its limits

and I cannot always focus on the good in everyone.

I am not the carefree Lydia,

nor the square, serious Mary.

I understand Kitty,

over-looked and desperate,

but I do not have her youth

or her aspirations.

I am

not yet written.

Danielle French