Dazzling

A Mess of Women

women are complex
diminished by metaphors
boxed in as tropes
exploited on posters
they flirt and they fight
with their stereotypes
they are maidens, they are hoydens,
they are spinsters, they are whores,
they are sisters, they are daughters,
they are windows, they are doors
they rule nations
and housholds
they devote their salaries
to forty-eight items of footwear
they dress up in white
and play tennis
dress down in track pants
and play sloth
they undress in lingerie
and play dirty
they have genius babies
who are the centres of worlds
they squander short days
on the shape of their hair
or not
they secretly cry for imagined slights
and hide behind Sophia Loren
sunglasses the next day
they cannot read maps
and their bum looks big in this
and at that time of the month
stay away
stay away
they are stronger than teabags
more beautiful than paint
resilient and giving
of the lion's share
I am one of them &
unlike all of them
I wouldn't know how
to be anything else