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the good wife
Too much time
in the kitchen
serving tea
washing dishes.
Too many people to thank,
arrangements to make.
People everywhere
So much to do.
No time to mourn,
no time to think.
No time
to sit on the floor
and cry.
looking good
How could I be dead
and not even notice.
Was it sudden
or a long slow smothering?
Was there a funeral?
a tombstone somewhere
recording what I could have been?
How did it happen?
Was it in high school
when I was desperate to belong?
In second grade when the teacher
pierced me with her eyes?
Or maybe even earlier
when I cried in my crib
and no one came.
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old-fashioned girl
“Is this how you
s’posed to do it?”
“I’m not sure I know
how...”
“You go first;
I’d do it wrong
anyway.”
Hesitant and yielding,
gentle flutter of downcast eyes.
Inside resentment builds,
drop by bitter drop.
Inside the wild bitch screams.
I’m a good cheering section
if someone else plans the game.
A good worker
if someone tells me what to do
I gives great support
if someone dictates the structure.
But when it’s my own scheme
How quick I am to destroy it
before someone else does.
fever breaks
Now when I hear someone
weeping in the night
I know it’s me
calling to myself.
Drawn by the stars
I stand by the window
And let the breeze take me
My fears rustle down to my feet
like last year’s leaves.
As winter breaks,
the tender fronds of a new day
unfurl in the mulch
of yesterday’s regrets.
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they never found a body
Did she jump?
Or was she pushed?
Nobody asked, she never said.
Now that she’s gone
we’ll never know
Did she run to
or away?
Did she die
or did she live?
The guards say she didn’t
make it
but how do we know
from inside?
Did she have the courage to flee
Did she give up too soon?
Maybe it wasn’t the bitter
end;
maybe she found a better
beginning.
Some say desertion;
I say liberation.
These poems reflect on the
internal struggles of women’s liberation. But
oppression is a shape-shifter, always looking for new
ways to enslave.Today’s pursuit of success gives
birth to more insidious demons that prey on men and
women alike... Next
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