I can hear the sorrow in every word of this woman who feels cheated, cynical in her understanding that she loved a wrong ‘un. This is ‘Poor Girl’ by Maya Angelou. She is angry, talking directly to a former lover who has betrayed her.

It has a simple structure, a repetition that reflects the sense of inevitability as he finds a new love; and the inevitability that this new love will soon turn into another old love, another poor girl, as yet again he uses then moves on. In her poetry Angelou loves men, but she also trashes badly behaved disrespectful unloving men.

This poem is subject to copyright restrictions. Please search for the full poem in an anthology or at your local library.

‘Poor Girl’
You’ve got another love
            and I know it
Someone who adores you
            just like me
Hanging on your words
            like they were gold
Thinking she understands
            your soul
Poor Girl
            Just like me

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Read these other excerpts and find a new poet to love:-
‘My Father’ by Yehuda Amichai 
‘Sometimes and After’ by Hilda Doolittle
‘I Loved Her Like the Leaves’ by Kakinonoto Hitomaro

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
A #poem to read in the bath: Poor Girl’ by Maya Angelou https://wp.me/p5gEM4-4kX via @SandraDanby