Oh, how Deadly:
To be Woman and Curious!²
Women live like Bats—Labour like
Beasts—and die like Worms—³
Cold grows the Spirit of the Ladies:
They draw their Wings close to their bodies.⁴
A Woman’s essence is to get Fucked by men.⁵
He ast his daddy why he beat her:
“Cause she my Wife.”⁶
Men expect Women to adore what
Men shrink from in horror: Themselves—⁷
Men are Flat! As cardboard:
That flat flat Flatness!⁸
Boys will be boys and reap the
Benefits of a Patriarchal World.⁹
Who cleans the house? Who cooks the food?
Who blesses the babies? Who stays too true?
Who sews the clothes? Who buys the shoes?
Who sleep too little? Who sing no blues?¹⁰
¹ Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale
² Silvia Park, Purge
³ Margaret Cavendish of Newcastle
⁴ Sappho tr. Aaron Poochigian, My Gales and Anguish
⁵ Radicalesbians, The Woman-Identified Woman
⁶ Alice Walker, The Color Purple
⁷ Valerie Solanas, SCUM Manifesto
⁸ Sylvia Plath, Three Women
⁹ Fatamah Asghar, Finding the Hammam
¹⁰ Mahogany L. Browne, Nameless