Femininity
it's not always a mini dress, it's
a pair of tear-proof, water-proof, tear-proof
pants, pulled to the snow, with red
on the ice below
Above, looms the rest of the climb
The cold does not care what I am
It wants to keep me frozen in place but
My lungs burn, my heart, my legs
pumping heat from my blood like weakness
This is just womanhood in the mountains.
Back in heaven
it is clean, pink polyester sheets
that feel like Egyptian cotton
when I am taken
higher than I could ever
climb on my own
That's just a woman's pleasure—many steps, many
mountains. Many days of beating heart and bleeding pain
and tears and tears and dashing, daring partners
dashed hopes/forgotten fears
You want femininity? take a mind and tell it
it's a good thing it's pretty and quiet
and diligent and on it and always
thinking of everybody but herself
Let her dream alone. Let her
sweep the dust from your home
instead of bringing more soil in with her
You want a real woman, watch her climb,
If she so trusts you with the other end of her rope
you can bet she'll haul you out of crevasse
and catastrophe. She knows you will catch her
Photo by Seth Bowen