prophetic wishes

when i was a young feminist
coming up out of the jim crow south
where working moms made pin money
and bussing was the racism of the day
stitched all together into a justification quilt
for the way things are, i wanted language
changed. mankind was the word for human kinds
all pronouns meaning we were he's and his
was the badge of ownership. i recognised
but only vaguely the valuelessness of ironing
yet mama did it after the dishes when she
got home from her shift at sears

i wanted to iron out gender bias, changing he to her
sometimes, sub in the fem when the lines got fuzzy
but now i've got reality that exceeds those dim dreams.
gender fluidity in the flesh requires a new lexicon
zhers and zhes mix with hers and hes but i'm still not sure
what cis stands for or what other non hetero norm
nicknames are. even tranny seems to have taken
a sideswipe at meaning, with -vestites and -sexuals
claiming the label for theirs, with drastically
differing defining characteristics and i'm not sure
if it's a badge or honor or an insult.

i don't think that's what most of us meant
when we said a woman without a man is like a fish
without a bicycle. i am attracted to men,but i don't
like them. they're selfish and self centered
don't have a lot of emotional maturity
and think with and about  their penises way too often
to be trusted with something like a nuclear bomb.

and the game women were forced to play
still are yeah
a li'l tna will get ya what you're looking for
you know, the valiant whore role
well it's just so limiting.
the old hollywood saw goes
she can't act her way out of a paper bag
but she can suck the chrome offa tailpipe==
and we all knew what kind of tail was getting piped....
i think that's why i don"t think big lipped women
can act, because they don't have to...



i mean we all just wanted a chance to do
something besides wash dishes, hair and children
something other than sexetary or go girl
something bigger than sending them off to school
and cocktails with the bridge club at three
something more than nurse or teacher,
more like md or phd, yea we wanted initials
other than mrs john x, losing even first
names in the mirror of wives,we wanted out
of those  limited lives,


but you know what. it's good to be woke n stuff
but the pc police don't got it right either,
tolerance is not the objective
acceptance is. yeah he's a racist pig
but it's  free country so he can spout a dirty joke
without gettin beat up please.
yeah, he's a womanizer with no respect
but consent, well, let's just say it's only
a formality anyway. mckinnon once famously said
all sex is rape because what she means is that
chattle can't say no, they can only say, at last,
yes. gave way, out the gate.


when i was young feminist
fucking anyway i please was the vanguard
of the liberation.. we were allowed to own
sexuality, unlike what i see today where it's
stigmatized. we were allowed to get drunk
and go home with that guy and not made to feel
violated the next morning. the walk of shame
was an 80's thing, after aids came to bed
with america. then sex had to be controlled again.
and anyway, we were never not sluts. so i'm down
with the slut walks, i'm down with the pink punk
hair and tongue studs, the moans of swipeing left
or right, the chance to pick up for the night
babylon had sex temples that all must serve
and the fuits of coitus were given to the temple.
i mean, the baptists could use some of that
kind of recruitment fodder.

amyway. it's weird.like i helped dream it
and it became a demi nightmare, wearing
a teddy and combats to bed.