What the mirror said

listen,
you a wonder
you a city
of a woman.
you got a geography
of your own.

The narrator seems like a self confident woman, admiring her beauty. To compare herself to a city, I think she was talking about her inner complexity. The geography refers to her power. Though history power has been expressed by how much land you own. Women have more shape and skin on their body then men, the skin can represent power.

listen,
somebody needa map
to understand you.
somebody need directions
to move around you.

She’s saying that she is not an object for men. She is special and deserves someone special. She cannot be taken advantage of.

listen,
woman,
you not a noplace
anonymous
girl;
mister with his hands on you
he got his hands on
on
damn
body!

The woman was sexually assaulted (I assume raped) by a man, but she knows he can only touch her body and not her soul. This is a really powerful message to all the girls out there that no one can ever hurt your soul. This poem is one stanza, the listens, break up the poem helping the story unfold. This poem is often related to Homage to My Hips by Lucille Clifton.


these hips are big hips.
they need space to
move around in.
they don't fit into little
petty places. these hips
are free hips.
they don't like to be held back.
these hips have never been enslaved,
they go where they want to go
they do what they want to do.
these hips are mighty hips.
these hips are magic hips.
i have known them
to put a spell on a man and
spin him like a top

This poem is similar in the fact it also gives power to women. By talking about how women can derive power
from their beauty, and womanly powers. It is the same style and also one stanza.