Hands Off

For this one, I’m adding a note here first for some context. I recently read an article about Trump suggesting “menstrual classes” for US women to help increase birth rates in America. Because you know…none of us seem to know how our bodies work. ๐Ÿ™„ The article was a little bit too Handsmaids Tale-ish to me, and so ludicrous that I simultaneously wanted to laugh and cry. The disgusting desire to control women’s health is just so disrespectful and alienating. I also can’t believe that it’s even happening to begin with. The ignorance and corruption. And at any rate, it also pissed me off, and so, of course, I wrote something in response to it. I wrote several stanzas, to be honest, but in the end, I only needed one.

The article, if you’re curious:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/us/politics/trump-birthrate-proposals.html?smid=nytcore-android-share


I am thirty-six years old
I know what I need
I dont need a billionaire white man
telling me how to bleed

Just a Pinch

Every month, a woman sheds the lining of her uterus

Except, mine is scraping through me
like a sweater-rake that claws at those scratchy balls of wool
I’m shedding barbed wire and lava
Feeling red hot and deflated

Men laugh at a woman’s period
Think we’re over-exaggerating
Like that small-pinched-lie you’re told you’ll feel during a procedure

Why can’t we be honest about a woman’s pain

A woman feels pain as easy as a man succeeds
In this patriarchal society
Where a woman just bleeds
And bleeds
And bleeds


If you’ve liked what you’ve read, check out my poetry book Walking in Cemeteries available for purchase here.