(Poem) Break Out Woman by Phibby Venable

PV break out woman with color
Art by Victor Hernández

I was framed and imprisoned for being a good woman.
I broke out when I found it was a lifetime sentence.
I want to write a raging man & not put a woman thru it
Most women are stronger than they seem
and weaker than they appear
Being bad is the only good thing most women have.
I need the sharp electricity of an lobotomy
on the symbolic side of my brain where the lonely feeds
I need a man that needs, that needs, and breeds
all kinds of compassion, like coins in his pocket
and he spreads himself thin with appalling generosity
And to tell you the truth, I want a gut punch, not a lie
I want a flower stuck through my hair and let it gnarl, let it fly
Let it tangle in adventure, it can lie limp or shine
Just stop all this taking, let something be all mine!
And this brain may be aging, it may be pavement young,
but I don’t need any one to sing a song that I have begun
Let me finish subtraction and addition on my own
I’m not that mean girl at school that the teacher sent home!
I am a wild butterfly with little baby jail bars,
a warm locomotive with a battery charge,
with a steam, with a scream
with a Look here! Can’t you see??
People have to be what they want to be!
I was framed as a good woman and walked the plank
And I am good at being good, much better than you think
But sometimes I want tequila or a virgin bloody mary
Anything but chronic boredom & a house full of worry
I want pepperjack cheese and a warm flowing dress
I want to stand on a bridge and see the mountains out west
I want to drive a Chrysler into the rims,
as dependable as me, but with the doors ajar
I want a long, laughing journey, that doesn’t draw a blank.
I want a long, hot sunrise that some angel made,
just after the light bulb went off in her head,
and she spilled all the colors in a cloud parade
that fell into the ocean, on the exact day,
I was visiting!

Read Meet Mago Contributor Phibby Venable and Meet Mago Contributor Victor Hernández.


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