Now this shit right here aint for public consumption
You hear me?
Ms. Ego warns off the bat
There are degrees to which you let out our buiznass
Never mind that being brutally honest – self cleansing crap
If you gon do this – you gon do it my way!

There is only one way – one truth
The Irates remind her in that infuriating ultra dry tone of theirs

My way is more comfortable
Ms Ego – combative as ever spits out
I aint saying don’t spill your guts – hey power to you and all that
But do it like you gats some sense in your dayum head
Save a little fifteen percent or something
That – there is only one truth is highly overrated

Hardliner – baby – your sabre needs sharpening

God this is too much – Hardliner muses to herself

That happens when you interrupt a breakthrough
What you have right here is unfinished business
Upon the new awakening that the Universe is sending your way

Lawd don’t rush a sista
She is here already – fully intending to spill her guts
Like she would from eating days old takeout leftovers
I am here – in this infinite space of truth

Full one hundred Boo – they also warn
Aint no fifteen percent insurance fee you gon pocket
But first thing first – Ms Ego is in the way of your full disclosure
Decapitate her like you vowed you would
Once she starts some mess
Your jihad on love has just turned
V-day is soon approaching

Supernaturally – Hardliner mutters and sucks her teeth
Dang – the most monumental things that have
Occurred in her life gats a supernatural taint to it

In other words – the Universe makes it a point
Of showing you who is Boss
Follow his edicts Hardliner
Maybe you would begin to feel like a willing participant
In your spiritual enlightenment instead of feeling
Bullied into doing what you do not want to do
Most times your Queen ascends her thrones
With you being dragged – kicking and screaming

Begrudgingly Hardliner concedes to their point
It is either she is glamoured into doing something
Or stuff just happens to make her fall to her knees in subservience
Most times her queen is victorious in battle and Hardliner
Is not even aware of her ascension to a new throne
Today the sun is out but her skies gats patches of grey here and there
Oys’s winds – no longer brutal but imposing nevertheless
The change goddess has brought her here to this moment
Her inner queen is garbed a warrior’s armour –
A sleek lethal sabre clenched in her hand
Hardliner’s face is grimly set as she raises the sabre
Oya’s triumphant cries peal in air

Gurl you don’t have to do this
Ego desperately pleads

Yes I do
Hardliner is tired of fighting love
She is tired of barricading her heart

And so
Her Irates urge her on

She has decided to be brave and face the love
She has for her lion

Your what?

Hardliner sighs exasperatedly –
Come on yall – work with me here

He is your what? they press on relentlessly
And don’t forget to personalise
They add with sweetness and light

Hardliner swallows – my husband

You paid for the marriage license didn’t you Boo?
He is yours – you would also have to pay money
To break this marriage contract
He is yours – lock stock and barrel
Why the trepidation in affirming his status in your life
In the space of honest truth
Still you resist – but then again you are a work in progress

Doggone it – when she figures she gats dem Irates pegged
They go into their bag of tricks and pull a new one on her

And what made you acquiesce to this truth

Like she gon tell all her… umph!
Dang that one hundred
Let’s just say gurlfriend was shown love and it humbled her
And gave her hope for a fresh beginning
Maybe that love and affection thing aint so bad

And the conclusion to all this is?

Dang – is this a question and answer exercise

You did swing that sabre all the way – right Boo
Cause the lip action aint doing you no favours

What can she say – old habits die hard
She is in this uncomfortable space aint she?
Change is a heartless biatch –she may be good for you in
The long run – but sista gurl don’t gats to like emotional upheaval
Change lugs with her – no offense Oya!

Chile – Change and transition
Don’t give a give a rat’s ass about what you think of her
She will not be through with you – until you die
How you decide to go through her process determines your comfort level
Either you embrace this authentically
Or she will continue to drag you into it – kicking and screaming

This breakthrough aint going down the way she intended
If she has learned one thing from this experience
It is that her resistance to change is so resolute
Every layer of resistance she chips away lies another underneath it
Change – painfully and frustratingly slow
Is revealing her inner self to her
And Ms. Ego has grown more vicious in her attempts to
Derail Hardliner’s unfolding

You betta hold on to that sabre
Her Irates advise
And you still have not answered the question about
This breakthrough – what are your conclusions?

Hardliner arches her spine and faces an expansive azure sky
Funny thing about dem disappearing patches of grey
She has unearthed Jane Austen’s Mr. Darcy in her Lion
Eh – husband
Love has finally moved in all its stuff into Hardliner’s digs

What?

Gawd dayumed!
Yall can’t understand simple poetry?

Not all poetry is good Boo

Hardliner moves past the intense discomfort
Of inhabiting this vulnerable space
Ugh – this unfolding gats her sweat out with palpitations and all
Breathing through it she exclaims

I love my husband

Dang – yall making a sista bleed!

Hardliner feels so naked – like all her buisnazz is
Splattered out there for public consumption

You married the man Boo – if love was absent
What would be the point?
Oh never mind – they sigh – with exasperation tingeing their tone

Hardliner smiles complacently – she knows she aint no walk in the park
But she is also smiling because her holy war on love
Has turned and she can actually envision a victory in marriage

Now about laying stretched out on marriage’s alter
She can be down for that – you know –
But first she gon try a leg or a foot – everythang in stages
Rome was not built in a day
And if her lion – yes her lion –
She dayum well knows that he is her husband
So she don’t gats to say it every dayum time
If her lion can pull out Mr. Darcy on a sista
She can be a little nicer to him and show some mush once in a while
That’s all she gats right now – cool?

Lowd have mercy – Her Irates sigh
All in a day’s work