woman

you are beautiful but crazy

& make too much conversation

beautiful but simply a body built

for babies then bruised fruit once

used you are quiet too quiet

do you think or speak at all

woman speak

but make no sound

no cries no opinions no dreams no secrets

but woman still know how to use that mouth

work hard don’t tire

calm down live wire

is what you have heard your

entire life

but hidden in you is the truth they fear

woman you are not just a body

woman you are somebody

whose sacred blood is a product of

all those before you

a million women before you

fell for you to rise so

woman do what you must

weep & howl

cry & stomp

if you must

& then woman rise

dress up for you & no one else

you are magic weather you wear

pajamas or a tiny dress

lipstick or no makeup

have sunspots or wrinkles

are married or single

woman your beauty comes from inside

daughter mother sister or friend

your beauty comes from what you are

& what you have always been

woman

Onsra

Onsra (Boro): a love between two people where they know it will not last.

I see that drunken flush you get in your face sometimes

when I know you’re going to go for it forget that the bar

is too crowded too full of people we know you’ll tilt my face

to yours & kiss my open mouth loving you is like this

equal parts electric & embarrassing knowing we won’t last

forever pretending you don’t know it too as you press me up

against the wall that one day the smooth solid muscle

of your arms will soften my long hair will wither into

gossamer & all we’ll be left with is each other & have to

decide if that’s enough when we can no longer make it up

to each other with heat & tongue I see the answer in your

stumble & my own tipsy swing of a glass this left-footed love

that I can’t shoot between the eyes just yet but the clock’s

tick falls away under all the noise of this bar everyone clinging

to their own unique demise some in love some strangers to

each other each of us just trying to stretch the night together