Poem by Staff Writer Christiane Williams-Vigil
Men stare down their noses at
my pulpy mass of fallopian tubes, ovaries,
and scoff at the cosmic threading of my veins within.
I am a threat.
I read to nourish my mind and soul.
They run into libraries to rip the books off the shelves.
I buy formula to feed my babies.
They snatch the bottles from their mouths and hide the food.
Blood flows like a river from me.
My personal sacrifice and a sacred dance with the moon.
The men come and take away cotton and threads they think will shame me
into staying home.
Loaded AR-15s hungry for the flesh of children is revered, loved—protected.
Honored before us.
They favor metal over flesh.
They are searching for reasons to destroy us.
And I will spit into the face of this oppression, swing madly into this war against our bodies.
Even when they cut out my tongue to stop me from speaking.
My soul will scream for me, for all of us
to keep going.
Christiane Williams-Vigil has a degree in English and American Literature from the University of Texas at El Paso. Her work has been featured in BorderSenses’ anthology Life in the Times and in Marshall University’s Movable: Narratives of Recovery Project.
Image by Gayatri Malhotra.
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