(audio version from "The Alchemy of the Word: SF Poets Live At Venue 9")
NO WOMAN'S LAND
(audio version from "The
Alchemy of the Word: SF Poets Live At Venue 9")
I live in a world where women have operations
where Frankensteins armies give us
what we think we want
collagenated lips and
hard blisters in our chest
tombstones betraying the mounds
our grandmothers fed time with
a world where doctors tell women
it is our fault, our uteruses are wrong
our emotions too unstable for lasting health
where women say
I dont use it anymore anyway
as if times had changed
and it was routine
to have our insides gutted
that the terror we felt
when Hitlers men did it
wasnt our nightmare
where we have our viscera vacuumed
clean out fat
like chocolate stains
left behind by idle fingers
our thighs and bellies sucked barren
by gambling hoses
again and again
each time deciding an aneurysm
is a trivial price
for yet another shot
at willpower
a world where women buy magazines
populated by perfect little dolls
pages of un-ripened arms and asses
hips too narrow for children
airbrushes defying the gravity
we see in the mirror
leaving us to compete
against ourselves
against credit cards
wielded as our only defense
where our hair is plucked
waxed and shaved
and a Halloween mask
plasters our skin
shadowing our eyes
tarring our lashes
dying us blonde
because corporations
of not-so-gentle men
--of both sexes--prefer it
a world where beauty is pain
and surgeons are sadists
paid to break our noses
use knives to cut away
the echoes of our laughter
as if tucking the memories
could turn the clock
back to more victorious times
those years when women were afraid
and men listened
even if only to hear us in bed
where breasts are scaffolded
feet spiked, nails pressed on
where we discount our flesh
for the deed to a five bedroom house
a six-figure checking account
a seven dollar blow job
our smells douched and flowered
sneaking just enough pheromones
to lure him away from his desk
his secretary, his wife
a world where women cook
feed others so we can binge or starve
slip mindlessly into the calorie mantra
haunt grocery isles and bakery counters
losing hours to the fat content of Haagen Dazs
skin our chicken bones
till there is nothing
worth fighting for
nobody fit enough for battle
where women have forgotten
forgotten we are lifes urn
the instrument of every song
these temples desecrated
their dreams turned wicked
leaving only dead, plastic bodies
our once-watchful moon
shrouded by Prozac
and the lunacy
of motherless milk, ghettos
and war and war and war
I live in a world where women
mothers
daughters
aunts
nieces
granddaughters
grandmothers
are hushed, flattered
beaten into service
one by one
their visions
prostituted
their strength
mocked by cigarette billboards
univited hands
silence
This is a world where women do not belong
or go 