The Goddess of Discord Is a Fucking Bitch

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.