The Well Behaved Woman

The well behaved woman isn’t born
She is chiseled like marble statues
Carved, etched, skimmed and smoothed
Beautiful to look at
But painful to create
The well behaved woman is praised
For her tight waistline and big bosom
For her lips lucious and red and ready to pucker up
at the beckon or command of a man
The well behaved woman is caged
Caged by fear and patriarchy
Caged by the gossip that would occur from the other well behaved women
if she let so much as a single speckle of hair grow beneath her armpit
or dare on her legs
The caged woman is polite, with always the right thing to say tucked up her sleeve
She carries the weight of perfection as if its a feather
Its not a feather
Its an anvil
The well behaved woman isn’t born like porcelain
Easily shattered if dropped
The well behaved woman is an illusion
At her core, the well behaved woman is a beast
She sprouts hair from her vessel like trees growing ‘round alpine lakes
Screams mighty to the sky as thunder comforts her cry
Unleash, mighty woman, UNLEASH!
Pounding fists on earth as stone turns to dust
They cannot cage you
They may try to come after you but they are forgetting that they come from you
Let the blood well in your womb and rush down your leg
Fierce as they come, she is strong
Hair wild and tangled
Laugher so deep it etches cracks in the crust of the earth
She knows how to do this
She knows how to tend seed, build fire, call to the Gods, and dance with the rain
She knows and this knowing cannot be beaten out of her
She carries seeds of generations in her gut
Look to her, the wild woman
For she knows how to carry us forth into tomorrow
Find the water, weave the baskets, sing the songs and speak the truth
Find the wild woman and ask to be guided
Do not fret at the hair on her thighs or the ripples of skin on her buttocks
Do not fret but do pay attention to
how she holds herself in reverence for her humanness
Not trying to “doll up” but instead, trying to dig deep
Follow her and let your wild return
Let your hair run free and your nipples feel cool air
Let the sun soak the skin in places they tell you to cover up
Why should she cover up?
Who is she hiding from?
A well behaved woman hides
A wild woman does not.