queasy friday morning

I can feel it. Can you feel it?

The trembling and the quake?

Hands shaking as the eyes they open

People, my women, me

Waking up

To the truth to the power to

The constant sense of not “enoughness”

To being judged, to being threatened

To being emotionally, physically and sexually

Abused without even knowing what was going on

You are not crazy, you are not too sensitive

Or controlling, you are not too needy or co-dependent

You are not asking for too much

You do not need to wear more makeup

Or prettier clothes or lose ten lbs. or change your hair

You are, we are waking up

And the newness is raw and terrifying

And makes us look at the world in a whole new way.

Don't stop. Don't blink. "This, this is,

This is not really happening…you bet your life it is." [1]

It’s okay for you to scream now

That would be an entirely

Appropriate and rational response

In fact, go ahead and

ROAR.

[1] Tori Amos, “Cornflake Girl,” in Under the Pink, Atlantic, 1994.