Menses
a love story for women

Your eyes shriek at the bitter edge again,
rabid dogs biting through chains of reason,
come over, I plead
Come over tonight, I call out your lousy excuses,
I’ll swallow all your swarms, and think,
we’ll dance in the belly of your storm
STOMP
The men hear the quake coming, usually knowing
better then to ask, for valid reason —
there’s no safe way to wake a dragon
Either it’s a yes with some serious side eye,
or a no with a pillow torpedo
launched at their head
SHAKE
We are Goddesses without a throne,
yet this world is too busy to honor
women for being warriors
Who shed off our being, rebuilding
tumbled insides month after month,
workings slaughtered again
JUMP
Except there are no more red tents, no celebrations,
no sleepless nights of women bundled together
in a red hot fury
Of stalwart dynamite, twined with supports
from each story bled out there, gone…
an intimate cleanse of sharing
BEATS
Blessed events of womanhood, birthing singular,
not plural for most, cycles are another thing
to gripe about
Like moon rhythms weeping, or spindly weeds
of an unruly garden, our tales grow out,
stubbornly refusing to budge
POUND
The men steer clear, when they should embrace
us even deeper, since a woman rooted deep
in the earth is a sacred force
Haven’t they grasped this truth by now?
Felt pheromones change, draw up mica, to mix
with the carnality of her clay
SURGE
Into her passion, fires of the tiger lily,
stamen freed to propagate, to lift up
those feelings locked beneath wings
Let them out, let it all out,
you will cry for withheld words no more —
howl, my love, howl…bleed
RELEASE
Your weary head fits this space on my pillow,
I share my secret chocolate, make you laugh
’til your side splits over what’s gone
We empty the sangria, crimson lips whisper,
you’re mine…all mine…here, now —
we shout out the lyrics to our fight song
REST
Burn the sage down to the nub, smoke exhumes
those prickly names we dare never speak
over the spiked gaze of day
Hands cover our eyes, when we forget the words,
we’ll write the next ones, every time you open up
and call us home.
