They told me to sit small,
legs crossed like folded paper,
voice tucked behind my teeth
as if silence were a virtue.

Cover up
Because if you don’t
It’s your fault

Your fault for their actions

If you ask for help
It never works
“He has a bright future”

If you need it to stop
Need to make a change
You can’t

It’s your body
But it’s their choice

Your skin, a weapon
turned on yourself
distracting, disgusting

You would never ask the same of a man

People ask
Man or bear
The answer may seem obvious to them
But no
Bear
Bear
Always bear
Because if it were a man
It would be so much worse

A man in a room of women
Ecstatic and elated
A woman in a room of men
Terrified and petrified

My shoulders?
Do they distract you
How about the bulge in your pants?
That distracts me
But I can’t say that
That’s unacceptable and awkward

So for once
Maybe instead of protection
Education would be the way to go
Because the answer should never be bear

Keep On
Cat calling
Me!??!
Man, come on!

I was taught
To always act
A freakin' queen
Never to fall
on shattered pie-ces

Each morning I'm cat called
on the walk to work
By some incels with mommy issues
All they can do is oggle
At the awesome *** God gave you



Ain't got clue what to do with it
In real life
if you survived
past saying hi

Aw it's cute that
you assume
you could handle all
That I
Outside the fantasy

he said
i wasn’t feminine.
he said it twice,
hoping the echo
would re‑write
my code
of not being lady‑like.

he came to the conclusion
we should stop.
i talked like a mate.
and didn’t fit
his narrow idea
of a woman.

and i told him,
i won’t fold myself
to fit his frame.
no one
gets to offer lessons

on
how
we
should
be
shaped.

one day she was sent
to a man sprawled ‘cross the pavement
in blistering sun
he, ignored by everyone.
the nice girl instinct compelled her,
alongside Hippocratic responsibility as a doctor.
her good samaritan arc began,
he her neighbour, the collapsed man
she offers him aid,
and suggests he move to the shade.
her medical assessment deems him well
but onlooker pressure to do more, she cannot quell.
he asks her to buy him heavy drink-
she tells him to have another think.
they compromise and she buys him food
just like a good samaritan should.
She wishes him a good afternoon
but all too soon
the tale begins to muddle
as he approaches for a ‘cuddle’
her sense of unease
overwhelms her compulsion to people please
“I’d rather not but all the best though”!
- he snaps and his true colours show.
the nausea hits
as he starts to shout about her ****
and chips at her sense of self respect
with an accusing “you look like you like ***”
she fights irate tears
over his leers,
summons her tough
and states that’s enough.
when he spits on her feet
she backs down the street,
maintains her false front
as he yells ******* c* * .
words shouldn’t cut
but she’s branded a s * *
and yes, we should not give to receive
but oh how i grieve
that to help is to choose
sexist abuse
i want to follow jesus’ ways
but he did not have to contend with the f** male gaze

is it something in the water?
or the way they’re taught to win?
“if she tells you no, keep trying.”
as if love is a door
that needs to be kicked in.
even my father
with his anger
loud, burning, and red.
as well as my brothers
one who inherited my father’s anger
and the other
who thinks **** jokes are funny.
and the boys i grow to love
with gentle hands
and painful ignorance
they are all evil in some way.
not always with cruel intentions
but with neglectfulness.
in making promises like they’re disposable.
in the way they leave
without calling it leaving.
i used to think it was just my bad luck
how they are raised
how they are forgiven
or how they aren’t
how they are never told they’ve hurt someone
until she tells them.
until she weeps before their eyes.
and asks them what she did wrong.

Humans, so weird, yet so intricate and fragile,
The horrors they've caused, so vile!
Some see the world as a black and white tile,
That simple, that closed-minded, is how they think,
Their traditions, simply the link,
That stops others from putting a ring,
On their same-gender lover,
Force them to put on a stupid old cover,
Can't let a person love another,
Oh buy you would rather,
You would rather snap at her,
For loving some other,
Her.

They find you inferior, because you're you,
Escaped the binds they never could,
So they create fetters of hate,
And put you in them, why?
Because it isn't "normal,
Even though they're even though they're caged by belief,
That they're in the right,
When really, they're shooting the wings of
Lovebirds,
Just trying to love,
their
Lover.

But it's fine, dear lovebirds of the world,
Their "right and wrong", will be hurled,
What was once, absurd,
Your love, always undeterred,
The word, it'll be bettered,
For all to live in peace,
The hate, will cease,
Cease to even merely exist,
All of those homophobes, sexists,
Will lose their hate,
And we'll live in a world,
Peaceful, in harmony, and without
Prejudice.

You are a woman.
You are sweet.
Glazed over your sharp edges,
you look just like me.

Speak softly,
your voice glazes over your thoughts
like a seafoam over the sharp ocean stones.
Be kind, be sweet.

Your skin is perfect.
Shiny, hard, like plastic
Smear your face with gel and creams.
'Till your as glazed as honey
from a bee.

Don't Let the tears flow.
Hold them in a well
Until your eyes are glazed as can be.
That way your soul can hardly be seen.

Don't Be Seen
Like this doll.

Cover your eyes while his hand twiches
You already know what comes next.
You can't run.
You can't hide.

All you can do is smile.

"I AM NOT afraid, i was born to do this" please, jehanne la pucelle--
here, humming, the constant
burn whilst he--inkspinner--mollifies and
****** ****** skin
I AM NOT
afraid--the hum, epauliere lying
heavy, cumbersome--my shoulders are broad and
moth eaten, trembling, waste;
mom, my canines hurt; i have to
show my teeth.
there are gauntlets in my skin, mom, licks of
fever-heat beneath my heels.
I draw the Weary longsword.
"I AM the drum." see: i too spit blood, raise the banner; are we the drum, all
you and i? watch the masses close in.
conflagration inferno round and round;
the sting of flesh, the weight,
the ache in my gums; the
drum, which GOD beats out HIS message please, mom, it
hurts. please, jehanne, it hurts please beg me BE NOT AFRAID

The darkness of my own kind shoots daggers through my soul
Their eyes with the last flicker of light leave my saddened thought
How could one akin to me have a heart as black as coal?
The string of fate the ones different they have fought

Even with similar address, together not alike
Different to another, both disbanding
Never did anything except teach how to fight
Similar from another, neither understanding

Because of its whiteness
The White House is fattist
And racist and sexist
And thissist and thattist
     And agist and apist
     And probly a ******.