The Power of Voice

By Mirrors

When we were young, we were taught to suppress,
as if truth itself was noisy and too heavy for air.
They called it selfish, dramatic, a mess
our needs folded into silence into unspoken prayers.

But as we mature, we reclaim what was lost
the right to speak from the core, not hide in the dark.
Silence breeds shadows that come at a cost,
It steals our joy, dimming the spark.

Some wear silence like armour, polished but brittle,
hiding the fracture beneath the steel.
Picture a leader whose smile is a riddle
rage in the eyes, a wound that won’t heal.

They told our boys that emotion is weakness,
that tears betray, that gentleness shames.
Yet behind their stillness burns something relentless,
a fire unnamed, refusing its chains.

Expression is learned, not handed, not free;
it grows through stumbles, through pain, through release.
Every great speaker once shook at the knee
their broken humble beginnings became their increase.

So let’s heal together and shape a vow
to honour our truth and speak it out loud.
If voices disturb you, lean in and allow
for power is present when silence is proud!!

Mirrors is a multidisciplinary creative, poet, and nurse from Masunga, Botswana. She began writing poetry in 2022 as a form of emotional release, rooted in her journey of healing, awakening, and cultural remembrance. With over 15 years of nursing experience, including a decade in psychiatric healthcare, her creative work is deeply informed by the resilience, struggles, and transformations she has witnessed in others and within herself.

Her poetry speaks to the sacred, the silenced, and the self-rediscovered, guiding readers toward inner peace and self-remembrance. In 2025, she founded The House of Mirrors Creative Media Pty Ltd, a platform for storytelling, publishing, and self expression.

Her recent achievements include being long-listed for the 2025 Asian Prize for Poetry with her poem “The Earth Won’t Wait,” and contributing to the forthcoming anthology, Who We Be! Global Black Women’s Creative Anthology with her poem “A Call To The Feminine”.

Through her work, Mirrors offers art that is both medicine and mirror.