Birthright

A poem on /CHois/

The invisible choke of womanness:
We are bound to a supposed subservience
solidified through the minds of a few men;
the graceless gift of imposed ideology
sifting down like grains of sand
between the cracks of each generation.
Must we chase an idea of an ideal
simply to please the eye of the beholder?
This subjective truth tug-of-war commences
while her bleeding and brilliant body
lies bargained on the line.
Trodden over (and over) in the stampede
of opinions, of social decisions,
quietly conditioning the status quo.
This, the miracle of life
trapped in its own imposed fragility.
You dare expect women to live with it,
to breathe a Being into it?
To succumb to this system
sacrifices the safety of our sisters,
the dreams of our daughters.
We are required, then,
to battle for a birthright:
Discretion must definitively sit
upon the shoulders of She.