Lisa DeSiro
So Many Things Come Out of a Woman’s Body
Some of it is exactly the same as for men:
urine & feces, phlegm & earwax, saliva & snot;
blood, when we injure our skin;
tears from our eyes when we cry.
But let us consider
what is specifically female:
the many variations of menstrual fluid
(scarlet, rust, magenta, pink; strands, clots, liquid)
or, for some among us,
babies—human beings!—plus
milk from our breasts to feed them.
Or those horrible mysteries,
miscarriages. Or abortions.
So let us be
not afraid to sing, sing about all these things
produced by women’s bodies,
since we are all
produced by women’s bodies.
Lisa DeSiro is the author of Labor (Nixes Mate, 2018) and Grief Dreams (White Knuckle Press, 2017). Her poems have appeared in Blood & Bourbon, Cordella Magazine, The Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review, The Healing Muse, Mezzo Cammin, Mom Egg Review, The Ocean State Review, Ovunque Siamo, Rattle (Poets Respond), Salamander, Shooter Literary Magazine, Sixfold, among other journals, as well as in the anthologies anthologies Writers Resist: The Anthology (Running Wild Press, 2018), edited by Nasty Women Poets: An Unapologetic Anthology of Subversive Verse (Lost Horse Press, 2017), edited by Her poem “In Lieu of Flowers” was a winner in the City of Cambridge 2017 Sidewalk Poetry Contest. Along with her job as production and editorial assistant for C.P.E. Bach: The Complete Works, Lisa is an assistant editor for Indolent Books and a freelance accompanist. Read more about her at thepoetpianist.com.
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