Women

I    
     
Women are allowed to break oaths    
professions sewn from hope    
burn bridges to the ground    
to make room for what counts      
     
II    
     
The problem with violence    
is that it captures attention—    
making it effective      
     
When our bodies vibrate into action    
we reach for reason      
to hypnotize us    
into balanced numbness      
     
III    
     
In my domestic violence exhibit    
at the local library    
one victim had written:      
     
“I talked to my pastor    
about [ . . .'s ] physical attacks—    
he told me to fervently pray.”    
     
As though her knees      
weren’t already bone and blood    
splintered with hope      
afterward, she was fatally shot      
     
How can the church argue with results    
how do you insert an alternative    
of clasped hands over bended knee    
while standing beside a grave      
     
IV      
     
I’ve tasted my own war    
through bloodied lips      
     
Born of polarity    
my life was an oxymoron      
secure and yet volatile      
solid and yet fragile      
     
I’ve spent a portion of my life    
trying to create awareness      
encompassing violence      
before others choked on their worth      
     
V      
     
The problem with walking away from danger    
versus fighting back    
—I swallowed this the hard way—    
is that some men become stalkers      
     
The problem with ghosting a problem    
is that they’ll create urban legends      
out of your name    
to cover their own shame      
     
and hunt you down all the same    
     
I’ve done a lifetime of advocating      
causes that seem intangible    
all while being tempted by the results      
of my experience    
     
Because there’s always proof      
in the blood  
seeping between a clenched fist  
razor's edge, or smoking gun      
     
VI    
     
I know the monster doesn’t make the woman    
but sometimes it can serve a purpose    
     
Women can break their oaths      
made while wearing a mask      
hiding the face of their wrath    
     
We can burn bridges      
buckling from the weight of marching      
by those who do not respect boundaries    
time nor energy    
     
We can clear out space    
burn our masks      
refuse to fold in fear of retaliation    
     
We can secure fresh new ground    
arming ourselves with all that space
and filling it with what really counts      
~