What Rough Beast | Poem for September 9, 2018

Virginia Barrett
Ode to She

she’s not starved                              but dies in need

she’s not beaten                               but is internally bruised

she’s not flogged                              but her wounds fester

she’s not silenced                            but her tongue’s cut out

she’s not choked                              but is strangled

she’s not sacrificed                         but her heart, still beating, is

she’s not raped                                           but is raped

she’s not thrown in the hole       but declines in darkness

she’s not sliced                                 but bleeds

she’s not tied to the rack              but is wrenched apart

she’s not jailed                                            but is captive

she’s not questioned                     but is grilled

she’s not detained                          but is chained

she’s not enslaved                          but is bound

she’s not submerged                     but drowns

she’s not burned                             but writhes inside

she’s not shot at the wall            but falls

she’s not crucified                         but does rise

Virginia Barrett’s books of poetry include Between Looking (forthcoming, 2019 from Finishing Line Press), Crossing Haight, and I Just Wear My Wings. Barrett is the editor of two anthologies of contemporary San Francisco poets including OCCUPY SF—poems from the movement. Her work has most recently appeared in the Writer’s Chronicle, Narrative, Roar: Literature and Revolution by Feminist People, Ekphrastic Review, Weaving the Terrain (Dos Gatos Press), and Poetry of Resistance: Voices for Social Justice (University of Arizona Press). She received a 2017 writer’s residency grant from the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of Taos, NM. Her chapbook, Stars By Any Other Name, was a semi-finalist for the Frost Place Chapbook Competition sponsored by Bull City Press, 2017. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

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