This site will look much better in a browser that supports web standards, but it is accessible to any browser or Internet device.

Meri Aaron Walker's
Womanifesto

 

If you dare to love me, I can promise you
There will be days when you'll watch me stare at the sun. Or the wall.
And days when I'll have to bleed just to know I'm alive. 

Days when I hide in the back of the closet.
And days when I'll ask you to help me tote my soapbox anywhere
I can gather a crowd.

If you dare to love me, the invincible forces of Light will be forever
Banging on closed doors, clawing their way through quiet conversations,
Demanding their due.

I sold them my soul. They'll never let me
Settle for long on a lazy Sunday afternoon,
Gossiping about the pastor's message. Or his wife's new car.

If you dare to love me, questions will always be swirling
Nearby. Meaty questions, dripping with exotic sauces,
Ready to be ripped open, down to the bone, and devoured.

Your teeth will be your best friends in this:
No gumming, no swallowing back your desire. The joy comes
From abandoning ourselves to the frenzy of wonder.

If you dare to love me, you'll lose any promise of safety in abstraction
Or expertise. I get Goodwill to pick that stuff up once a month
And distribute it to the poor.

Trying to hide it under the bed or in one of those folders
At the back of your desk won't work. I can smell it
Before I get two steps inside the door.

If you dare to love me, you'll always be certain of nothing
And everything will be fair to explore. Right up to the moment
Of Death. And then we'll see what happens.

All I know is this. And this. And this. And then this:
The rarest of fragrances, far beyond the pale of words,
Floats just past our sight and hearing.

I have to go there. I have to inhale it.
Please come with me. I don't know if we'll make it back alive.


< back to the main Womanifestos page