Holy Body

I have posted only a few snippets of my poetry here, but the times are calling me to share more. I have two on death in my upcoming book's Spiritual Smack section, which will be available in all bookshops natiowide April 2018 but you can pre-order here or here. I see the dying of a nation, of our rights, and of love. 

The vulgarity you'll read here is but a mild rendition of the counter-anger many feel as a result of these violations; to say it is impolite language would be an insult upon the transgressions we face day to day. The hatred that we face not only through what surrounds us but in the brutal silence of the words we speak to ourselves looking at our own reflections. May we soften the words we have for ourselves & carry a big stick in defense of all. Here's to sharing more & hearing your thoughts . . .

 

Holy Body

Open secrets, what does it mean?
To bite into the red tongue
Of grief
Carried by
Women
who have not been touched an inch, no
but left with but one purblind eye
staring skyward through which no hope could squeak through
who have climbed upon scales to pick their bodies apart,
bone by bone
by ideals spoken from dusty books
—a “delicate” Jane Eyre and “thin and pale” Bartleby
(eating only but a ginger-nut)
to statics and touch-screens
who kissed the hungry lips of another
Woman
Womyn
We
who have then kept those feverish lips quiet in fear of
men (no, and women) against love, 
equal
Pay
which does not equal their labour
in their cubicle across Cerberus with half-baked tongues yacketayakking
to keep us still behind the gates
Woman
who works three jobs and a night shift, a shepherd of her little lambs
feeling like a sheep herself in a herd led by a wolf
not in a lambskin trojan, no
—riding his own horse over the body of our rights
for our bodies, and vaginas, and breasts, and frozen eggs (and dreams), and clits, and cocks, and in-betweens
for her, and him, and they, and them
for black, white, and all shades until we go blue in voicing the fight
Because this is not a voice of the voiceless for
who speaks for oneself must speak also for another
—an ally or a blind sheep of Big Brother