Lupa
“…So mastered
by the brute blood of the air…” from Leda and the Swan, Yeats
 |
| 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
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 | | kathryn kyker |
|
|
|
|
Blogger's Note: Kathryn Kyker lives in Athens, Georgia, but enjoys frequent travel. She has visited Barton as guest of Adrien Helm and the Wednesday Poets. We know her also because some of us attend by internet a poetry group in Athens held luckily on the Wednesday we don't meet in Barton. Her memoir is soon to be published with accounts from her career as a Social Worker. The title is Surprised by Nothing: Surviving the ER World of Worst-Case Scenarios, published by Girl Friday Productions.