Shout: List 3

I armored
myself that first day...
with incantations grandmaternal;
love-sewn skirt, unheard prayers,
a penny in each loafer, I walked to the bus stop
then to the gallows

When it was over the kids filed out,
and we headed for the door
toward lunch at a posh restaurant
on someone else’s dime

sharing memories and befuddlement
broken dreams and sorrow
they struggle in the middle
of the ocean, storms battering
grabbing for sliced life jackets
driftwood
flotsam and jetsam from downed
unfound planes, sunken ships
and other disasters

sharing memories and befuddlement
broken dreams and sorrow
they struggle in the middle
of the ocean, storms battering
grabbing for sliced life jackets
driftwood
flotsam and jetsam from downed
unfound planes, sunken ships
and other disasters

sharing memories and befuddlement
broken dreams and sorrow
they struggle in the middle
of the ocean, storms battering
grabbing for sliced life jackets
driftwood
flotsam and jetsam from downed
unfound planes, sunken ships
and other disasters

Apologetically bile-gagged,
they tell me
they know they should feel
grateful

what’s the big deal?
asked at every kind of school
all over the country
curious boys honestly inquiring
their friends squirming

a quest of knights errant
a smirk of dudes

some of the bullies are homebred monsters
built by Frankendads, limb by limb
filled with regret and juiced by shame

a retribution of scars

“As of September 8, 2017,
no instructional materials (textbooks,
library books, classroom novels,
etc.)”—THIS “etc.”SLAYED ME—
“purchased and/or used by the school district
shall contain any profanity,
cursing”—REDUNDANCY IS A SIGN YOU DIDN’T
PAY ATTENTION IN ENGLISH CLASS—
“or inappropriate subject matter.”

“As of September 8, 2017,
no instructional materials (textbooks,
library books, classroom novels,
etc.)”—THIS “etc.”SLAYED ME—
“purchased and/or used by the school district
shall contain any profanity,
cursing”—REDUNDANCY IS A SIGN YOU DIDN’T
PAY ATTENTION IN ENGLISH CLASS—
“or inappropriate subject matter.”

Supreme Court precedent
condemns school officials who
remove books “simply because they
dislike the ideas contained in those
books and seek by their removal to
‘prescribe what shall be orthodox in
politics, nationalism, religion,
or other matters of opinion.’”

Supreme Court precedent
condemns school officials who
remove books “simply because they
dislike the ideas contained in those
books and seek by their removal to
‘prescribe what shall be orthodox in
politics, nationalism, religion,
or other matters of opinion.’”

Censorship is the child of fear
the father of ignorance
and the desperate weapon of fascists
everywhere.

...a toy for their
yearning for violence, depravity
the gravity of which will pull your child
into wild denial

the false innocence
you render for them
by censoring truth
protects only you

Don’t get me started
on the real meaning of
“abomination,”
or the contradictions,
omissions the bishops let slide
or translation errors,
or the scribes who lied.

He found me standing
at the back of the infernal gym
next to a table covered
with cables and rolls of black, sticky tape.

He put down his tools and studied
his calloused hands,
cleared his throat, and whispered,
“I’m Melinda.”

He picked up a roll
of black, sticky tape
meant for insulating,
for holding things together

but cloth, ill-woven and untested
warp and woof never quite locking
prevent memory’s tapestry
from ever being completed

...you wake up
the next day broken
bruised confused contused confounded

Are you still doing the math?
Raise your number to the power
of three
exponentially increasing the impact

The exits were blocked,
so you wisely fled your skin
when you smelled his intent,
like a selkie, you shed your pelt
and hid in the smoke without breathing

Now multiply that number by the number of times
you endured being harassed,
hit on, talked down to, catcalled, gossiped about,
called a prude

triptych

...One of my favorite images in Speak is Melinda
at her mother’s store, where she folds
the wings of the triple-paneled mirror
around her

Melinda’s trick is looking hard
in the mirror, absolving herself
and cracking open doors to the next place

musing

Ophelia and Persephone walk into a coffee shop
bringing with them the smell of cinnamon
and rain.

Unwilling avatar for silenced girls, our Ophelia,
seen only though the male gaze;
pale gray construct constantly
throwing herself at boys and rivers.

one sister, no brothers, two puritan parents

but when the evidence of another victim
is presented
bruised, battered, dented, and shattered
you snort derision, bark suspicion

I’m sorry you didn’t get the help you needed
you deserved a soft afghan wrapped around you
people to hold your hands

let’s be enraged aunties together
enthroned crones, scythes blazing
instead of defending these men
who laugh at you when you turn your back

The Reckoning
transforms us into tigers
hunting you down
one by one,
dragging you by the nape
of your dirty necks
to face her
face him
face them

And after the crop is harvested
the fields cleared of rocks and stubble
swords beaten into plowshares
dirt furrowed
the new seeds, planted deep and cared for,
will grow into strong children
with kind hands and strong bodies

And after the crop is harvested
the fields cleared of rocks and stubble
swords beaten into plowshares
dirt furrowed
the new seeds, planted deep and cared for,
will grow into strong children
with kind hands and strong bodies