cynthia mcgean
Bitches like us always get
a bad rap
a bad rep.
It’s in the stories, you know,
And you can’t have stories without a bitch or two.
What’s in a name?
All the same it’s time to reclaim
the sounds they’ve laid on our backs.
What’s a bitch but a leader unafraid
to handle hardship’s clay
to dig in her nails
to squeeze the rust-red truth between her knuckles
to pound it into shapes
of melodious birds celebrating pain?
Bitches don’t judge
without cause.
Bitches see
the power in starvation and in anarchy.
We strip away the oil-slick residue.
We dig up artifacts from
your dried-up piles of dung
to be hung in a place of honor.
Bitches remember.
We lay forgetfulness on the headstone
of your loved one
as a gift –
a mountain-cold stream that shocks your blood
so your heart may neglect for a day
to grieve.
Bitches know which plant is poisonous
and which is
healing.
We mix both kinds in our bouquet.
Uninvited, we show up anyway.
Bitches come to play.
When we wear make-up we lay it on thick,
sport clown faces at social farces,
write in bloody lipstick reality
to blast false oaths with defiant clarity.
Bitches speak truth to power
set science free
sound clarion trumpets
for wives and daughters and sisters who labor
at the feet of bureaucratic lunatic saviors.
Bitches know how to wage a righteous war.
We wear our naked skin in to battle
and come out bloodied
bearing all the best stories.
Bitches survive.
And when we grow into old crones
we will gather our misjudged children about us –
the world’s orphans born of no one –
and feed them the seeds of our hard-won tales
and watch them grow into cosmic gales
of laughter.
***
Based in Portland, Oregon, Cynthia McGean is an educator, writer and theater artist with a background in social services. Her work spans a wide range of genres, including short stories in publications such as SQ Magazine, VoiceCatcher, Kaleidotrope and The Saturday Evening Post, as well as stage and radio scripts that pop up periodically around the country. Since the 2016 election, she has been increasingly drawn to poetry, both written and performed, as her primary format of creative expression.