Turning Point, by Hedy Habra

Woman Carrying Faggots, by Mihály Munkácsy (Hungary) 1873

​Turning Point
             
Seated on a flat stone, head bent under a bundle of twigs
She closes her eyes, other weights weighing on her mind
A woman's life is never her own her mother often said
Would anyone ever ask her 'What would you like to do?"
 
She closes her eyes, other weights weighing on her mind
It wasn't to empty her time-worn shoes of tiny pebbles
Would anyone ever ask her 'What would you like to do?
Except for unwanted weights that took control of her life
 
It wasn't to empty her time-worn shoes of tiny pebbles
Lost in thought on this trodden path oblivious to bird trills
Except for unwanted weights that took control of her life
She wished someone had noticed her carmine headscarf
 
Lost in thought on this trodden path oblivious to bird trills
Unaware of soothing sunbeams filtered through the canopy
She wished someone had noticed her carmine headscarf
Unstartled by the passage of squirrels through dead leaves
 
Unaware of soothing sunbeams filtered through the canopy
Had she become invisible inside out losing track of desire
She wished someone had noticed her carmine headscarf
Needing to own moments to help her rise, eyes wide open

Hedy Habra

Hedy Habra's latest poetry collection, Or Did You Ever See The Other Side? won the 2024 International Poetry Book Award and was a Finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award; The Taste of the Earth, won the Silver Nautilus Book Award and Honorable Mention for the Eric Hoffer Book Award; Tea in Heliopolis won the Best Poetry Book Award and Under Brushstrokes was a finalist for the International Poetry Book Award. Her story collection, Flying Carpets, won the Arab American Book Award’s Honorable Mention and was a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award. Her book of criticism is Mundos alternos y artísticos en Vargas Llosa, She is a twenty-five-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. https://www.hedyhabra.com/