Watching Beauty and the Beast
Girls learn that life is not a feast
They see the rules for womanhood
Be thin, be pretty, and be good
Give to others what they need
Even if you’d rather read
This Poem May be Unlikeable
Angry Housewives of Portland
I want to go and smash a vase
Or punch somebody in the face
Migraines keep me from The Drink
And so I scrub the kitchen sink
Tidy up the living room
And sweep the leaves up with a broom
I pull the weeds up by their roots
Pretend that each invading shoot
Is The Patriarchy
The Kind of September
Walking barefoot circles
‘Round and round my tiny yard
All I know is that this year
Just keeps on hitting hard
The moss is soft beneath my feet
I breathe the tree-cleaned air
And offer to the universe
The fear I cannot bear
Self-fortification
Instead of saying ‘self-care’
Let’s call it self-fortification
‘Cause we have to strengthen ourselves
In order to strengthen our nation
The Maternal Perspective
As I look upon my daughter
Blinded as I am by love
I think about the One
Who looks upon me from above
Every speck of her is sacred
That’s the truth of what I see
Though I’m full of fault and failings
Is that what You see in me?
Written in Stone
Portlandia is mighty
As she looks down from above
And then there’s Lady Liberty
Whose silhouette we love
Artists use The Woman
To show us an ideal
Rather than real women
Who might think
And act and feel
Gentlemen on horseback
I have seen an awful lot
But real women from our history?
It seem they were forgot
Emily Adkins Bostian 