Emily Thomas (Colours of Love and Barriers)

Emily Thomas

Emily Thomas is a spoken word poet, performing arts educator, thespian and professional clown from Malaysia. She has spent years facilitating workshops and curating festivals, advocating arts education and appreciation specifically for the youth. For Emily, poetry should not remain tucked away under our pillowcases, but shouted out loud on every speaker’s corner. 

Unseen

That girl

Crying in the corner of her bed

With single lined scars

From her elbow to her wrist

Hidden under her sleeves

Always covering her skin,

Tugging the material of the cloth

When her gaze meets her mother’s 

and the tension of her mother’s mouth

lets out a silent scream,

The burdening weight of being a teenager

a yoke on her shoulder

bearing down on her

You’re a woman and I see you.

That octogenarian 

Staring out the window

Warm, velvety skin on a cold metal wheeled chair

Tucked away

Hidden 

In a corner somewhere 

As her memory 

Comes and goes

Like the family who put her in the home

It starts to slip away, 

The life she shared

And the times when her strength 

And her sheer youth

Carried her husband and children

On her bones of her back

You’re a woman and I see you

That pregnant teenager

Carrying a secret in her belly

Paralysed by fear

Terrorised by trust

Traumatized by stigma

Vilified for the space in between her legs

You’re a woman and I see you

That lady who comes out to work at night

Her presence

Permeated by stale smoke

And red lights

Sitting in a dinghy room

Cradling her womb

Trapped in a rut

Where men, pay other men

To use her

And then, call her a slut

You’re a woman and I see you

That single mother 

With bruised bones

Who works three jobs

To put a warm meal on the table

And struggle with the landlord

To pay the rent

So that her children will not feel the pain

Or bear the brunt of another’s ill temper

She dries her weary tears as she walks through the door

To greet her children

You’re a woman and I see you

That domestic helper

Who left her own family

To cross the seas

And look after another family

To cook and clean and feed

Tucking away her own liberties

You’re a woman and I see you

You are not unseen

A commodity

To pass hands, 

Under veils of ambiguities 

You are a goddess

And it is in truth

Your worth is unseen

I bow to you.

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Colours of Love :: Setu, July 2022