poetry – Page 5 – FEMININE COLLECTIVE

FLEDGLING

January 6, 2024January 6, 2024 Angel Rosen

When I was born, my mother clipped my wings. Just the red ones. I flapped and tapped on my incubator for six weeks until they released me into her arms, a pink infant in knots and a woman with scissors up her sleeve. Life as a cardstock canary, a polymer Read more

Not about that – not about love

December 22, 2023December 22, 2023 Elisabeth Horan

I miss that stupid ache — Fiona Apple Floating in a slick of oil – arms out Funneling the pollution through my hair Mermaid on her back — I protect the brain Coral. I am myself: a filthy Exxon liar Exposed, naked bulge of plastic waste; Daliesque my fans and Read more

I Saw Charles Darwin On Tinder

December 4, 2023December 4, 2023 Ericka Russell

I take the Plan B at 8am sharp in the Walgreens’ parking lot. He says he’ll split the cost with me, but we never talk again. I blink, and I’m 15, ravenous, researching male species. The toll to impregnate their mate. Of course he drowns his Anas Read more

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING A CIRCLE

December 4, 2023December 4, 2023 Katherine West

You swim up to me pulled in by the tide of my thighs You are a minnow in the labyrinth of breast and belly round and round you fin until you reach the lacuna of my navel the cleft of my entrance the cave of generation where you lie on Read more

The Catalogue of Men

November 28, 2023November 28, 2023 Cynthia Good

Before sunrise I’m flipping through a catalogue of men, A parade of men looking for relationships, super closeups, Guys in ball caps, blurry headed, sideways, in bed, crazy Faces with monsters, in cubicles, beside lattice fences, Strapped into car seats, in the shower, in private airplanes And parking lots, with Read more

ARMED

November 28, 2023November 28, 2023 Susan Shea

I didn’t want to raise an unarmed saint after seeing my mother wear that role, always waiting for some relief like an unsheared sheep, she walked her muddy field alone until she fell from the weight of her own worsted wool, unable to feed herself. I was powerless then but Read more

Late Night

November 6, 2023November 6, 2023 Judith Staff

“You look tired.” Yeah. “Late night?” No….no, it’s not that. I’m tired of trying change; of trying to heal from the trauma; of trying to discover a plateau of self-acceptance; of trying to be an adequate person, and better wife; of trying to worry less about being a good mother. Read more

Heart’s Paradox

November 6, 2023November 6, 2023 Paula R. Hilton

When you weren’t looking, I slipped a piece of my heart, its left ventricle, into your suitcase. This chamber pumps blood throughout the entire body. Mine, yours, ours. Waiting for a transplant, Stan Larkin lived 555 days with no heart at all. Carried artificial organ’s power source inside a gray Read more