Geraldine

today i saw a photograph of a woman
knees splayed
folded over herself
face down
bloodied towel between her legs
and i cried for her for everything about it
and because in twenty years that could be my girl
that could be yours
that could be the back-alley, dark motel, quiet stale cold botched-abortions
our great-grandmothers knew
there is a danger to dismissing history
and we will be the price bloodied
face-down
folded over ourselves
knees splayed
saddened and sad
our last breath as we grieve what we have to remove
wombs emptying out as we fill ourselves with light

 

Photo Credit: Aimanness Photography Flickr via Compfight cc


Written by 

Amanda Linsmeier is the author of Ditch Flowers and Beach Glass & Other Broken Things. Her writing has been featured in Portage Magazine, Literary Mama, and Brain, Child Magazine. Besides writing Women’s Fiction, she loves reading and writing fables, fairy tales, and fantasy, and sometimes she pretends her Hogwarts letter is still coming. When she’s not writing, she works part-time at her local library and brings home more books than she has time to read. Amanda lives in the countryside, surrounded by trees, with her family, two dogs, and two half-wild cats. For her, writing is the best kind of magic, and her work is heavily influenced by mysterious women, nature, and beautiful images and fueled with lots of iced coffee and background music. She’s the kind of monster who dog-ears book pages, and she has read her favorite book, Beauty by Robin McKinley, probably a hundred times. She loves pizza, tattoos, shopping, and pretty much anything French.

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