for Robin Pastorio Newman
This poem is not a sexy poem
This poem is not built to please
This poem is intended to offend
This poem does not have good manners
This poem does not know how to behave
This poem does not respond to people
who say lighten up
This poem is not sugar and spice
This poem is not nice
Stop being nice
Stop being pretty
Stop Stop Stop
We can't go on like this
being polite to the
idiotgentsia
We can't keep talking about power
like we're sneaking a smoke
in the girl's room
We can't march out the door
while we're darning their socks
It is not enough
Being loved is not enough
Being in love because he
does the dishes
remembers your birthday
buys you roses or
only beat you once
is less than enough
It is not even near the map
Let them do all the housework
when we do all the soft-shoe shuffling
and all the emoting
Let them be bewildered
when we decry pornography
but long for love making
Offend them in their faces
laugh at them
when they are
clumsy-paw naked
Offend them
We can't go on like this
without our own
serial killers
We can't go on being a threat
at slumber parties
We can't go on pillow fighting
the patriarchs
Offend them to their faces
Even when they are our friends
Even the men we love
just like the strangers
will rape us
with the force
of their silence
ignorance or anger
We are only the sum of our body parts
unless we tell them to knock on the
door before entering the living
room call before coming over
take up only their own space
We can't go on like this
calling famine an orgy
defining love as absence of self
We can't go on like this
being prisoners in our own clothes
tiptoed and teetering on our heels
Let them dismiss us as deranged
demonic deluded or dog
Let them damn you (they will)
Practice saying it in the mirror
Practice saying it with your sister
Practice Practice Practice
then scream it
out loud
in their face
Offend them
Forget the protocol
Offend them
Don't be gracious
Offend them
Get in their faces
Walk into the room wailing
Offend them
Offend them
Offend them
and
See if they notice
See if they feel it
See if they choke on it
like you did
when they
assaulted
you