In the quiet core of your being, listen. Listen to the salted caramel voices of the women within you. Their whispers are the echoes of a thousand generations, a symphony of strength and resilience. Their stories, heavy with wisdom and experience, paint vivid pictures on the canvas of your skin.

This skin, it’s thick. Thick like the barriers we’ve crossed, the obstacles we’ve overcome. Thick like the borders we’ve birthed, the lines we’ve drawn in the sand to claim our space in the world. Thick like the borders we’ve burned, the constraints we’ve shattered in our quest for freedom.

Yet, within this thickness, there is a gentle fire, an orchid blooming. It’s a testament to our resistance, our resilience. We are the phoenix rising from the ashes, the lotus blooming in the mud.

Some of us, we’ve been broken and butchered. We’ve been bold, yet never solid. We’ve been lost, not wanting to be found. We’ve lost the desire to be wanted. But in this loss, we’ve found something else. We’ve found the power to turn our souls into poems, to color our skin with the ink of our experiences.

So, listen. Listen to the salted caramel voices of the women within you. Let their stories paint pictures on your skin. Let their resilience inspire you. Let their voices turn your soul into a poem, your skin into a canvas of ink-colored stories.

Copyright © Beatriz Esmer

Watercolor Painting art – Maori tribe