Creative Responses Blog

In passing time as woman

finds left femur bone to be more
corrupted than right, is
completed, starved, moored
on ledge between body and repercussion —
to be still as still can be

In passing time as woman,
finds rose bush between two thighs but
cannot
kiss self
for too long. What is this
rage, if not to be exempt
from sin, what is this sin
if not to be exempt from
need?

In passing time as woman,
made to listen, to know color
yellow for light,
made to fake knowing as
un-knowing, as forget, as promise,
regret: your value is not a woman.
Your value is a man-made thing
handed to a woman in passing time
for keepsakes.

In passing time as woman,
do not forget you come from Adam’s rib—
In passing time as woman,
forget over and over again.
No god made you
in passing time as woman.
With rose and bush and femur bone
make eyes of face a color they do not know

In passing time as woman,
Become. Over and over again,
until all the stars crowd over head
and wait for lips
to say your name

Art Response: I wrote this poem after reading Sultana’s Dream and Feminist Urdu Poetry because I was really inspired by the strength of the voices in the authors. I was moved by their solidarity and their resistance, their independence and their strife. I was also very inspired by my best friend, Margot, who has a tattoo of a rose and the woman’s symbol on her rib to show a sort of defiance against the biblical story of Eve being made from Adam’s rib. Margot is someone who I have always admired because in the small town of Commerce Township where we grew up in, she was always proud and unashamed to call herself a feminist. She would wear a ring on her wedding finger and when prompted by her “marriage,” she would boldly proclaim that she was married to herself and that she belonged to nobody. Margot was the first person I knew the challenge ideals of virginity, to dub the words “virginity” and “pure” as social constructs contrived to constrain the body. In a small conservative place, this made Margot half-crazy and half-nuts. And she inspired me to be half-crazy and half-nuts and feminist as well because it was important. I wrote the poem “In Passing Time as Woman” as a response to their responses, and I allowed myself to echo them through the use of “time” because I believe that time is something that can be extremely restrictive but also something than can be transcended by the mind. And I wrote this poem for my friend Margot, for her rib, for our ribs, for our friendship, and for each other’s solidarities.

~ by dmuhleisen on December 5, 2015.