A teeny tiny pin prick pricked
And so the skin grew thicker
And two more pricks there pricked their prick
And so the skin grew quicker
And rise in weight and temperature
The skin began to callous
Till all the pricks were no more felt
The skin fell numb save malice
For skin too thick can turn itself
Quite into what it fears
A tiny prick will come and go
But skin can last for years
White as salt
or Black as pepper
Sand is tiny colored rocks
and stars are bright specks up above
Freckles are dust on skin
dust is skin that's dead and been
Dust is stars and freckles and scars
but live skin is what we live in
And the two dots in our eyes
will never really see
If we are pepper, salt, or stars
or maybe all of the above
So the word "FEMINISM"
I like what you stand for
But....
I don't like your -ism.
I don't like your exclusivity
I don't like how
The very nature of you, dear dear word,
Polarizes us
Women
The innate nature of you
Tells us
That it is only women
Who are part of this
Inequality
Well. The dance, my dear word,
Is not strictly feminine
The fight Is not
Ours alone.
The inequality is felt
By both "sides" (if there are sides)
of the
masculine AND feminine
You, my sweet, powerful, enchantress-of-word, who gave our mothers
motive and voice,
Have moved us into our present.
Thank you.
For all we know
You helped give gentle rise to
LGBQT people
Who wished to move into the light
You taught us,
both men and women
That it's ok
To cry.
But now, we are in the present
That you birthed
And we need new words
To hold us ALL now
For we are not so much
Ruled by our sex
As we are
By our spirits
And our spirits are housed
In these bodies
And these bodies now
Identify with pink as man
Or trucks as woman
And, so, dear sweet, tired word, stay your values but rest your bones.
Teach us now
The power of the words
"GENDER EQUALITY"
And we will make you proud.
A Woman’s Bath
This woman’s bath of mine
A self-inflicted Lulluby
A chance to L E T G O
In a womb of our Creation
Your bath is hot fluid forgiveness
the body’s ease
A bath is a replication of your
Mothers’
Mothers’
Mothers’
Love, well wishes, and peace
For their daughters
X forever back
Forever forward
And on we truly LIVE
Beyond our mother's hot warm wet bath.
The Siren's Choice
The Siren is many things. Sort of like the tide She never meant to harm.
But she is she and she
Came into the world above with legs, with curious soft tissues Inside, laying eggs
But water is as water does and water
Rises and rose around her Pushing on her lungs Pulling on her spine Speaking many tongues
And confusion is confusing and confusion
Pulled her under and sink she finally did and for a minute her eyelids closed their lids
But living is what living is and life
Would not let her die or let her live So of her floundering pruny limbs
Two, she decided, would become A pair of fins
Don’t fall in love with my genitals
Fall in love with my jokes: because the greatest joke is that generally we all have genitals
Don’t fall in love with my genius
Fall in love with my mistakes: the ones you hate and the ones that worked out accidentally
Don’t fall in love with my benign smile
Fall in love with the world that gave me that smile and be wary when it’s upside down
Don’t fall in love with my beauty
Fall in love with my changes: with the tides of water and blood in this hot, living thing of me
Don’t fall in love with me externally
Fall in love with the ghosts that operate my insides mysteriously and made these acne scars
Don’t fall in love at me; fall in love through me
Fall in love with my humanness, and baby, you’ll fall in love with yours
(written by the river, and me sitting next to it, swatting mosquitos)
