the world in a word rant poem

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raise yr hand if yr a feminist-okay!
once considered a radical notion that women are people—
feminism is again a dirty word (outside this inner sanctum)—
that's propaganda like "you need a hummer" or
gloria's fish needs a bicycle
feminism is four syllables rich, not some puny expletive!

feminism rolls off the tongue like fertility and flirtiness
the silt and sand of the Nile, the hot sun of New Mexico chiles
but "uterus envy"? kind of a clunker—the root of misogyny
waving its wand at you and me—get back, Rosa; get down from that
glass ceiling; Hilary—know yr place, nut cracker

Uterus envy schools women into ridiculing ourselves
a five-syllable pre-emptive strike
from angry men would have us
silent, compliant like when good girls
didn't tell—when good girls didn't
ask why we paid with our lives
to be his wife

women with voice and confidence are feminists now
our wailing sirens lure, our hair entices yet
feminists do not deny anyone's right choose
anyone's right to ambition
power pricks trick girls into belittling themselves—
advertising the vagina as empty space
no one home? a nothing until
his presence and only his presence his fleshy key the only key?
feminists can't stay in Rapunzel's tower pining away
wasting their days "Oh, oh, where is my darling prince?"
—back then women coined the motto "Fuck Housework"
not literally sex with door knobs and broom handles, unless, of course . . .
Let me deconstruct for you—toilets and washing machines are not
     a life's worth of fascinating
pick up your own damn socks was the first step, honestly—
    ask your moms—
males were dropping socks n underwear all over America until feminists said "No! No more!"
The little lady's job description was to clean up his shit, so lots of us
stopped being little and stopped being ladies, and stopped with the nice spice;
feminism brings us "she" and "her,"
women in text books, title IX—
feminism demands my body is mine—
keep your creepy translations of the Bible
out of my womb please and out of his ass—
what a place for the Bible for god fucking sakes
God likes sex, by the way—she invented it!
we've come a short way, sisters, in 50 years—
job for job, hers & his, seventy-eight cents on the dollar, America,
come out of the closet and join the feminist world
I grew up with girdles and garter belts
uncomfortable bras, principals who could pat yr ass or worse
no domestic violence laws
—we're not so far
from the Burkas, the chadors
let your hair down, America, revel in womanhood
womanist, feminist, liberty, justicia—proud words
our hope for the future, our world in our words
¡que vivan las femenistas!