Poem-A-Day #273 : Myth of the Mother Virgin

Myth of the Mother Virgin

I want to talk about bare arms - the pull of gravity on a mother's arms - the feeling of the flesh and the darkness of stretch marks

How shamed we make them - these arms

I want to take your hand and tell you that I abhor your politics and your husband but your choices are your own

I am tired of hypocrisy in all forms - Melania - I want to talk about the fact that you wore an identical dress to the one that Michelle Obama was shamed for - the one her arms hung out of - and you sat and talked to her and we both know she noticed

Your body is identical to this one - we cannot accept that we share parts with the ones we hate

I look at my arms in the cold light of late November and I see that I am ugly

I am certain that you have looked in mirrors and felt this

Certain that you have made yourself a golden nest and that the universe is appalled that it hasn't been so lucky

What do shamed arms look like

They are covering themselves - they do not allow the hang to show - they pretend that nipples are the color of cotton candy and the size of dimes - they imply that labia is to be only seen when it is sexual

Shamed arms are unable to carry the weight of much

They find the black and white photos of history and color them in acid colors

I feel for your nudity - I worry it - the universe has discovered that breasts exist and that even the most visible of women might have bared hers for money

And it has recoiled - retreated into the arms of childhood - wandered into the woods and retreated into the forts they built themselves - Get Rid Of Slimy GirlS

There is a pile of snowballs - a sort of pitchfork in the gut

Poem-A-Day #93 : Boudica

Boudica*

Part heroine - part terrorist

Just what you need to build an empire
                       or destroy it

Boadicea & Her Daughters - Thomas Thornycroft 1902
Source - steeve flikr

*Found poem taken from the script for the Boudica episode of Warrior Women

THIS! 6/1/12

THIS! on June 1, 2012

1) Thieving Irons

The second album from this really really good Brooklyn band is available for pre-order on iTunes.

Here is the video for their latest single, Poison.




2) Leafcutter Designs

Get a loved-one a tiny letter or package. I sent one of the tiny cards to my Mom one year for Mother's Day. You can add your own message of about 25 lines. I would keep it to about the length of a tweet.

The packages are things like marbles, buttons, dice or an esc key form a computer.

Adorable and odd. And cheap!


3) Roominate

This toy allows you to design, build, and decorate a dollhouse. The best part is that you also get to wire it for electricity. There are TVs, fans, lights, all sorts of things to add with basic wiring skills.

The designers have launched a Kickstarter. They have two weeks left on the campaign and have already made twice what they were asking. The best part is that it teaches skills that are incredibly useful and often overlooked in our modern education system. Their vision statement is perfect:
.
We aim to bring more women into STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). Early opportunities to be inspired and encouraged will help girls welcome their potential as tomorrow's technology innovators.

Scratch-off

Happy Anniversary to me!

Starting today, every poem will be written as it is posted. So each poem will be unedited and posted as soon as it is done.

Wish me luck.

And be kind!

For the rest of the month I'm going to write a poem about a historical event that happened on that day as well as using the word of the day for the title.


Scratch-off (the last Magdelene Asylum closes 1996) 9/25

This is how it happens :

These nuns sell some land

This is in 1993

The land developers find 155 bodies

Like some horror movie

They take the bodies and cremate them
toss them into a mass grave

These women
most of them just young pregnant
or mentally handicapped “socially dysfunctional”

They washed clothes and sewed

Weren’t allowed to talk

It started in 1767

30,000 women
most never allowed to leave again

Not one eye blinking

Not one word raised
for 200 years

It took a land deal

And the invention of cheap washing machines