Body Politics
Mama said,
Real women
don’t steal
from the sky and wear clouds
on their eyelids.
Real women
eat rabbit well-done
not left half-raw
on their mouth.
Real women
have lots of meat
on their bones.
They’re not starving,
hobbled horses
with bony, grinding hips.
Real women caress
with featherstone hands
not with falcon fingernails
that have never worked.
When she was finished talking
she clicked her teeth
lifted her arse
and farted
at the passing
city women.
~ Louise Bernice Halfe, 1994
