I wrote this poem on March 8, 2015 inspired by the International Women’s Day taking place annually on the 8th of March. I had shared it in an email to All with my colleagues at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
During James Snyder’s tenure, I felt that I could share my creative spirit with my fellow colleagues.
In my email to All my colleagues I had simply written:
Dedicated to women on International Women’s Day
by Yvette Nahmia-Messinas
They Want Me to Be Half of Me
They want me to be half of me
Layer by layer I undo
And not be all that I can be
All the smallness I was brought up to
They want me small, and saying yes
I tear and cut and set me free
Follow orders not impress
To breathe and be the whole of me
Have to know my place, not take too much
Layer by layer I undo
Keep it modest, small, polite,
All the smallness I was born into
Be gentle and cordial to all,
I tear and cut and set me free
Pretend, it suits me to be invisible.
To breathe and be the whole of me.
I suffocate from being small
Layer by layer I undo
Need to come out from that all
All the smallness I was raised into
Be all of who I am
I tear and cut and set me free
Express in fullness, reclaim my domain
To breathe and be the whole of me!
From Jerusalem with love,
Yvette Nahmia-Messinas
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