Guest Poet Marcy Winograd
Womanhood
I'll race you to womanhood
I'll clickety-clique my mommy's heels
all the way
to the Miss Maybeline beauty pagaent
and if I trip along the patent leather
and yearn to climb a tree
I'll turn on the t.v.
and keep my mascara on the model
climbing into a pair of jeans
without taking a breath
of
pig tails
You stick out your chest
And say you're already half-way
to womanhood
with your eyes
gouged from curling the lashes blind
and your feet leaking silicone shards
but
I've got news for you, sister
My self-esteem is ¾ liposuctioned
and my hands travel to my hips
to hide my smile
whenever I feel a bout of bikini
coming on
So beat that, sister.
Yeah, I'll race you to womanhood
I'll pierce my intestines with an IUD
before you can say copper kills
and I'll buy fishnet stockings
to catch the slippery ones
I'd let slip away if I were smart
You say you're inching up on me
gaining yards with each cozy
in the crook of his neck
but this ain't no neck and neck race
cuz I'm eyeing the finish line
40 lbs. underweight
my knuckles raw
holding down my tongue
binging on body image
and hurling the little girl
from my deepest insides
Yeah, my pedicure
just touched the line
and the crowd is cheering
waving white chiffon
parading posters of
Marilyn in baby dolls
And now
with God's breath on my blush
and my mother waiting
beyond the tears
I'm crossing over to life
After
Here after
Womanhood
May, 2001
Marcy Winograd's Questions:
Questions forthcoming.
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