MotherLine

The Emancipation of Eve ~ Digital Collage ~ by Susie Clevenger

You can bury my bones,

but I’ll still breathe.

No matter how many

voices try to talk my mind blind,

I’ve been cradled in women's wisdom

even before I was born.

Eyes wide awake, hand to the pen

paper smells of ink, ocean stinks of men.

There’s no lift in a hand that only

touches bottom, or change when

a wheel moves backwards

in a world moving forward.

My feet don’t like to dance a loop.

My head hates dizzy, my body 

argues in the forced stand still.

You can bury my bones,

but I’ll still breathe.

Keep trying to talk me blind,

I’ll keep forcing you to see. 

©Susie Clevenger 2024

Shays' Word Garden Word List ~ The Return of Ellie Black

Symbols and Such

 

In the bizarre ritual

of dividing self

between reality

and gingerbread expectations

of love, I walk the island 

of my watch trusting

a vase of ecstasies 

filled with lilacs and peonies

(symbols and such)

will woo romance

to my door before time

robs them of their blush.

With all the romanticizing of romantic

there must be a tall, handsome (malleable)

male roaming his soul to find words

to proclaim (feebly) of his heart’s loyalty

to all things me.

Surely the astigmatism of a besotted eye

would find me so irresistible my kitchen 

of herbs and bones would not offend.

There are islands of letters I’ve collected

from the fallible inklings of masculine absurd

who think their bodies are Eve’s wonderland,

a place where submission would be my blessing.

Of course, no man is an island. 

He prefers a skulk where he can

thump and bluster he has the 

prowess to own any vixen he desires.

Oh, who would believe I’m a fainting goat

lying prone in dreams of Prince Charming.

Springes line my sidewalk to trap egos

silly enough to think a wink and muscle flex

are enough to reduce me to shivers of surrender.

I am a black widow of various talents who knows

how to protect her web from the dissection 

of her spirit to accept less to parade a perception of more.

©Susie Clevenger 2022

Shay's Word Garden Word List ~ Amy Lowell