Lupa
“…So mastered by the brute blood of the air…” from Leda and the Swan, Yeats
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| photo by Kathern Kyker taken while in Italy |
They sell them as fertility charms
bright red, flame-shaped objects
like peppers, the hot kind
Phalluses freed from ancient Pompeii
just in case you forgot
this is a man’s world
erect, rigid, piercing
Innocents fed to lions
nails through whomever for whatever
by the same men who burned women
for being immoral
The goddess they admire turned
a victim of rape into a monster
emulating the masculine
she never emasculates
See how ugly a woman becomes
when she won’t hide a man’s crime
against her
Starved of circles, spirals, wombs
their mother made a nameless wolf
suckling the young boys who
spilt blood across the world
until finally we hear her growl--
Now that’s enough.
kk 3/25
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