Men Who Think I Am One of Them Speak

A Poem

It is not normal, a woman says

Never has been, another said

Ordinary, the men women make

In parks, corners of street, rhyme Daily,

I shut the window I pass messages by

The so-called tender seed of birch blows quietly by

It will be crushed in the office of living

Jos Charles

2021

The Woman, The Tiger

The woman, the tiger, the door, the man, the choice.

Riddles are soulless.
In them, it is never raining.

—2012

Jane Hirshfield

2015

“What Do Women Want?”

I want a red dress. 
I want it flimsy and cheap, 
I want it too tight, I want to wear it 
until someone tears it off me. 
I want it sleeveless and backless, 
this dress, so no one has to guess 
what’s underneath. I want to walk down
the street past Thrifty’s and the hardware store 
with all those keys glittering in the window, 
past Mr. and Mrs. Wong selling day-old 
donuts in their café, past the Guerra brothers 
slinging pigs from the truck and onto the dolly, 
hoisting the slick snouts over their shoulders. 
I want to walk like I’m the only 
woman on earth and I can have my pick.

Kim Addonizio

2000

Poems

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Men Who Think I Am One of Them Speak

A Poem

The Woman, The Tiger

“What Do Women Want?”

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