Hollowed out
Eviscerated by volatile events
Gutted over strenuous years
Tattered edges frayed
Shredded in perpetual exposure
Yet it stands
Inexorably upright
Defiantly sun-reflective
Vibrant streamside
Against all odds
In the darkest
Of her days
Twin beacons
Sustained her
Transported her
Through the inferno
And beyond
To survival
Avian visitors
Fluttered and flapped
Past her window slit
Into her imagination
Burgeoning hope
In external miracles
Worldly peace
Verbs, nouns and adjectives
Swooped and drifted
Past guilt and despair
Into her soul
Lifting expression
Voicing angst, anger, pain
Ventilating agony
On a wing and a verse
Synonym snapshot
Verbal portrait
Observational oratory
She built a bridge
Above Dante-ion abyss
To a livable life
My vagina
Along with those
Of all the foremothers
And all my sisters
Every race, creed and color
Inexplicably
Is held to account
For every action and reaction
Erection and ejaculation
Of all penises
Within cruise missile range
My flawed cavern
Is cause of misjudgments
I am much too intelligent
To ever have committed
I am repeatedly reminded
While simultaneously accused
Of using my wily organ
To corrupt and subvert
Penis-headed right activity
Ownership of said aperture
While the embodiment of
My weakness
Otherness
Less-than-ness
Foments the mystifying misbehavior
Of elsewise well-behaved
Carryin’ career criminals
I know why penises
Blame us vagina owners
For their missteps
This source of ecstasy and comfort
That baffles and befuddles
Humbles and contorts
In moments intimate and obscene
It is incomprehensible
When my sisters
Equally gifted and afflicted
Wield the sharpest swords
In the vicious dismemberment
Of my vulnerable core
Inexplicably oxymoronic
I am possessor
Of the orifice
Most powerful of all
While weak and tainted
Beyond imaging
With such power
In my being
My nucleus implodes upon
The enigmatic dilemma
Over which I have
Zero control
No third person distance here
This story is my own
Autumn air’s crisply curled
Edges – crackling – unfurl
Cool-kissed lining
Borne green-apple crunchy
Upon ground-sweeping
Indian summer zephyr
While amber sun
Fall-fickle with
Skin-warming caress
Plummets in fiery
Scarlet crescendo
Seasonal swansong
Back in the real world
She looks, walks and talks the part
Suburban professional
Soccer mom
(Minus the soccer playing children, now grown)
She knows this world
Can speak it’s language
Follow it’s unspoken rules
Yet surrealities abound
She was dragged
At gunpoint
Chained and shackled
Into hell (*prison)
Left to languish in
Fetid anguish
Befitting the evil
She walked from the gates
Shoulders squared
To catcalls of “hey Shawty”
From cell windows
Forever scarred
AND strong, resilient
As never before
She used her “mom voice”
With gang banging drug dealers
Sunday morning in the
Halfway house dining room
Hands akimbo
Asserting her rights
In a right-less world
She strode to the podium
Spoke her public shame
While advocating
For openness
In doors and minds
For herself, unemployed
And countless compatriots
She walked the tightrope
Of abject gratitude
At opportunity offered
With resurrected saleswomanship
Articulating strengths
Owning existent skills
Surviving incarceration
She proves herself
In early morning promptness
Dedicated attentiveness
Creative self-directedness
The wearing of multiple
Unlabeled hats
As she walks a mile
In these ill-fitting new shoes
In moments she lives life
Normally, as if
In today’s vernacular
Normal was a thing
She drives to work
Lead-footed as always
Focused on tasks up-coming
Until she remembers
A speeding ticket
Could violate her probation
Prompt prison’s return
She speaks her mind
With authority
Borne of decades’ experience
Hard won knowledge and education
Forgetting the felony
That stripped her of all
Authority, dignity, voice
She laughs, spontaneously
Struck by incident or comment
Hilarious, incongruous or ironic
That tickles her
Sensibilities, funny bone
Oblivious to the wreckage
Of the life which she inhabits
She dances
Twirled and spun
By the glorious updraft
Of a song, bird or human
Or blessing of the sun
Insensible to her unending
Incomprehensible grief
She lives
Moment by moment
Day by day
In a life bereft
Of all she would formerly
Have deemed crucial
To survive and thrive
And moment by moment
Surprising herself
With innate tenacity
She lives