WASTE DIVISION

II

October 07, 2017 in Poetry

I’m feeling a bit emotional today

To no surprise

As I am the proud bearer

Of a uterus and long hair

And soft breasts

And therefore an inability

To quiet my excessively

Bleeding heart

I’m feeling a bit emotional

Because next to a man who

I’m told is my equal

I feel less than

Simply because he can speak louder than me

Because his grievances carry the weight of mountains

And mine are deemed an overreaction

I am a bit emotional

Because I’ve been taught that

The most important thing I can be is pretty

That I am less of a woman if I ignore

A slight of hair on my upper lip

That I must coat my skin in

Gloss and powder

To be noticed.

I am feeling emotional

Because any roundness of my belly

Means I am sloppy and lazy

Next to a man who gets winded going up stairs

Belt angrily biting his sides

But who has never once had it suggested to him

That a diet would be in his best interest

I am a bit emotional

Because somehow, even when I coat my skin

Whither to a size two

And clear my body of all of its soft curling hair

I am vapid

I am trying too hard

So shallow that if you were to walk through me

Your feet would stay dry

I am a bit emotional

Because you scorn me

For harboring a desire to fuck

That parallels my phallus-toting counterparts

Because my exposed body

Can reduce me to filth

But without my sexuality

I am a shadow

I’m a bit emotional

For my bleeding feet

From treading glass

To avoid cracking fragile male egos

Because a slip of the tongue

Can so easily lead

To a broken body

I am a bit emotional

Because no matter how rational

How honest

How stone-faced and unobtrusive