The Evolution of Woman

Born into a world that is ruled by the few

An oligarchy disguised as a democracy

(We're accustomed to believing it is not so

Because we are cattle, and "the man"

Can slice our necks open at any time)

I'll never be a man, for it is God's will

I'll have the "wo-" stuck in front of it

Like an uninvited guest that refuses to leave

Even when the dessert dishes are put away

I'll forever be destined to be wo-man

A syntactical slip, that we are hu-man

When we were small we were equal

Until that day in the change room

In the sixth grade, when Sadie began

To make fun of you for having fat legs

Then, like a lollipop version of Eve,

We looked down at ourselves and realized

That we were wo-men and our bodies became

Something that needed to be kept secret

Chastity belts digging into our bellies

The sunburnt truckers with leering stares

The frightening reminders: never walk

Home alone at night and bring hair spray

Defending ourselves from the very world

Into which we were born, which we did

Not ask for, which we do not accept

Our minds are so thoroughly scrubbed

Like stained pots with rusted edges

We refuse to admit that we are exploited

Dancing in a smoky, blessed ignorance

This is the evolution of woman

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Happiness is Pink Jellybeans

Happiness is jumping in a pool of pink jellybeans Feeling the cool candy on my skin Happiness is enjoying the pleasures of life Without worrying about confessing my sins Whoever said that we are gluttons For biting juicy pears on the beach Must never have felt the sand in their toes They must have placed their own soul out of reach And what about greed? It's not all that bad To bury a pile of chestnuts for the spring All animals do it, so why shouldn't we? If it's greedy to love yourself, let it be Lust is the one that makes pastors blush Yet it's one of the greatest joys in the body A kiss and a dance, laughter and romance Why did we ever label this happiness as naughty? Have you ever seen a cat sad when it naps? It is okay to sometimes be lazy The body needs rest as does the mind Or the world will set fire from the crazy If happiness is a sin, then let me smile in hell Looking up at the do-gooders above For to live is to err, to cry, and to sing Happiness is pink jell...

Lost in Rio

Jesus looks over The lost souls and bones below In the jungle sun To witness such beauty And such devastation God painted with one brushstroke Merry men sing Holes in their shoes The dark night lit up By police sirens And the crescent moon Bats flail around Like me, lost in the jungle Eyes glaring all around I hope they're monkeys Or jaguars I hope I can keep a piece of This country with me Safe in my pocket It smells like tropical rain And feels like The clam shells Washed up on the shore It tastes like fried bananas And heavily salted steak Sounds like seabirds cawing Samba on the streets And looks like a page From a storybook About parrots and palm trees Of finding a golden treasure A magnificent, uneasy place When she sun goes down So do we Leaving the night To the creepy crawlers And innocent stray cats

I See the Fire

Every time I close my eyes, I see the fire That aches where you burned me last I am a woman of the earth and the cool soil Where life ferments and earthworms roam I can't survive the lava that pulses beneath The crust of this beautiful land Yellow dandelions piercing the grass Emerald pockmarked with gold I wish sometimes that I wasn't a woman of the earth I wish that I were stronger I wish that my bones were made of steel And my heart of flame So that I wouldn't fall apart at every Crude remark, every Light tug, every Covert attack That rolls off the back of a fire-woman Instead, my skin is transluscent Like the morning dew My muscles pieced together With tree sap and mushrooms What's an earth-woman to do In a world engulfed by fire? But root herself firmly to one place Grow a network of twisting underground limbs And create a stable home To escape the chaos of this world

Olga's Poetry & Thoughts

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