hunger

I've seen the orchard
filling with apples yet denied myself
picking the blood you've planted for the season.

congratulations

says the tyrant who knows
how to leave a blank between the two sides
arguing for the right to breathe

congratulations
say the women who have
severed victory in the name of freedom

the women who nod their heads
with the knowledge that if these heads were raised
the world will shake with vigor

congratulations says the men
who have deprived
women of their womanhood

thinking that only body parts
complete the whole
like a broken up puzzle

match and arrive
at a perfect depiction
congratulations

a boy
a girl
a boy again, maybe both

a boy with a heart of a girl
a girl with the heart of a boy
an identity so like water, lucid

congratulations, they say
those who know nothing of the stories
of murder by gender

on exile by first and last name
they deem a celebration
our pain

congratulations,
says those who hear the news late
say grace for the souls revived
because it is easier to celebrate
than to demonstrate fury.

refusal, by poetry

I refuse
the poetry by negation
it is what I have not, that keeps the things I have at hand

tied-up

What use is my pen
if I cannot use it
when my hand is tied behind my back
yet still, expected to write?