poetry

Limbaugh

Limbaugh

O, America
how you reward
the most vile of men
and how I want
to finally quit you

all us women
battered by the words
of these irredeemable
powerful men –
we must leave

if you think
it can’t get worse, it will
it’s time to find a place
where people are calm and kind

we must up and go now
and take all our sisters
(and, yes, the moral men, too)
with us

we’ll just walk out
and leave the dishes in the sink –
leave them the mess of
guns and banks and greed –
until they’ve stolen it all from each other
and shot every living thing dead

then someday
when the coasts are finally clear
if the land calls loud enough
we may return

poetry

New Ireland shell money bride price

New Ireland shell money bride price

so many ways to buy
a woman in this world
and here is just one:
gather snail shells
& slice into disks
drill a hole in each center
file each round side smooth
string on cord

the parents bring out the tape
measure labor by the millimeter;
instead of fruit-by-the-foot
it’s Sheila-by-the-shell
how long is this love worth?
how much can this woman ask?

poetry

Feminist Fashion Police Strike Again

Cedar commissioned this poem.

Feminist Fashion Police Strike Again

the irony

the terrible mistakes made
in the making, selling, wearing of this t-shirt:
“AFRAID TO MAKE MISTAKES”
bold white letters on a red ground with a smattering of blue stars
evoking America

the worst part is that it’s not worn by some silly little slip of a girl
she’s a middle-aged woman
in a sensible headscarf
out with friends
on the river trail

the best part is
that my 9-year-old boy is horrified
wants to tell her to dare
wants to show her the mother-of-pearl insight
inside failure’s ugly oyster
wants to hold her hand
to help her be braver
like he held mine
after the bat’s wings brushed my arm.

poetry

Feminist Fashion Police Citizen’s Arrest

Feminist Fashion Police Citizen’s Arrest

as the long escalator plunges down
through the glittery shopping-obsessed
Oil State airport/mall
I can’t help but read
the trim young woman’s back
in front of me over and over
spelled out in a block
of black and white sequins:
THINK LESS

trapped together for this moment
the stages of grief flash by
while both our hearts keep sinking lower

  1. DENIAL
    maybe she doesn’t speak English
    sees the text the way I see a Chinese tattoo
    or the Arabic all around now
    no more than an interesting pattern
    of swoops and stops
    utterly meaningless
    maybe she’s no idea
    what she’s broadcasting
  2. ANGER
    you are undermining everything
    everyone’s done
    dimming the future for everyone
    idiot!
  3. BARGAINING
    maybe they’re mermaid sequins
    stroke her back
    and maybe the words transform, inspire
    say love more
    do more
    feel more

    maybe I’d agree
  4. DEPRESSION
    it’s not just her to blame
    it’s the designer
    the manufacturer
    the marketing team
    the model who wore it
    the store owner who sold it
    her parents
    her friends
    the men it was meant for
    WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?
    oh, yeah. right. they weren’t.
  5. ACCEPTANCE
    o young woman
    on the DXB escalator
    who I am so tempted to think less of
    who I literally look down on
    you are yet another manifestation
    of divine intervention
    the universe exercising its will
    calling me to stay vigilant
    reminding me
    how much could still be lost
    thank you for putting your provocative self
    in my path
    igniting my thinking
    in the midst of an otherwise mindless moment
    clutching the handrail
    descending into materialism’s hell