Femme Fatales

Women’s History Month 2022 Poem

of all the deprivations associated with living in prison

none fills the emptiness of the absence of women

this is sleep without dreams

                        years devoid of spring

or a playground with no swing

                     ...I'm not exaggerating

without our mothers

                 we are pride at a party for rage

without our sisters

              we are secrets paining for escape

without our ladies

              we are talent grasping for a stage

without our daughters

                 we are moments wishing for memories

                 ...that never were

and yet we read it

                 and hear it

                           and see it

because we write it

                  we scream it

                               we stream it

all the trafficking

               the raping

                         the beating

treating them like cows

                     like sheep

                               like hens

in a pasture for the pleasure

             of all the cocks, bulls, and rams

         ...just tell me why

why do we starve them

                     deceive them

                                  then breed them

         ...tell me why

why we divorce every Angela's brilliance

before we marry her movement

why we leave every Angelina on a curb full of kids

and won't even take the philanthropy with us

and why we lust for the bends in every Kim's curves

but don't assist her mission in breaking the system

this isn't fiction

              or superstition

                            or myth

           this is the flipside

of Susan B. and Mary Bethune's darkest fears;

us using the veil of freedom to strangle the breath

from every ideal they ever believed in

and I'm calling us all out, myself included

because I'm guilty of it too

guilty of being a roué; rotating replacements

guilty of hormones jumping impiously on the daily

guilty of letting our culture backhand an entire generation

of beauty

         resilience

                   and resistance

the Cardis

          the Megans

                       the Lattos

ain't wrong for birthing a hyper-femininity

in contravention for treating them rotten

for the defiance mocking a superiority complex

raised by testosterone's perverse adoptions

for using what we lust for the most

to bust us harder than we ever did them

either literally or figuratively

           you go, girls

the last few millennia were contralto;

suppose you're due a soprano

suppose the ladders of success have ceased

from climbing between men's knees

suppose stereotypes are being cooked, cleaned, and happily tossed

by stay-at-home dads

suppose that the only reason we haven't had a female president yet

is because another nation's masculinity was rubbed the wrong way by it

                                    ----pun intended

and suppose it's time for you,

                           every single one of you,

of the not only fairer, but more beautiful, more intelligent, more patient, more understanding, more reasonable, more graceful, more sensitive, more attractive, more caring, and more loving of the two sexes

to realize Mona Lisa did not have to look like Aphrodite

for her value to soar

the only guys Harriet Tubman needed

were the ones to follow her to freedom

and Joan of Arc required only her mind

to lead an army of men through a war

history's laced with your brilliance

                       your bravery

                                      your achievements

before any man anywhere displays an arrogant entitlement

allegedly afforded to him by gender as a metaphor to destroy you

       remember

you make us

            raise us

                   and save us

you teach us

            keep us

                    and above all

                                     you complete us

and remember,

              it lies in you all

in perpetual crouch

                  waiting to pounce

                                    your femme fatale