A Call to the Stronger Sex by Christine Stoddard

Ancestors whisper hungrily
from their cradles of stars
They will haunt us until
we women-folk feed
their obsession for tradition

At least those are the stories
that creep into our beds at night

These stories are scorpions
that carry fear on their backs
threatening to infect us should we wander
just as they promised to sting
our mothers and grandmothers

Our ancestors demand a long lineage
Thus men seize our wombs
Our bodies are not our bodies
They are vessels for pearls and pain
Pearls for the dowry and pain for life
We must fight from clutching and cowering
because each one of us is a constellation
our own timeless legend in the making
not a pile of embers dying in the breeze
Squash the scorpion but do not squelch your fire
Forge your own traditions from the coals

About the author:

Christine Stoddard is a Salvadoran-Scottish-American writer and artist who lives in Brooklyn. Her visuals have appeared in the New York Transit Museum, the Ground Zero Hurricane Katrina Museum, the Poe Museum, the Queens Museum, the Condé Nast Building, George Washington University’s Gallery 102, and beyond. In 2014, Folio Magazine named her one of the top 20 media visionaries in their 20s for founding the culture magazine, Quail Bell. Christine’s artwork has been recognized by the Puffin Foundation, Artbridge, and the Library of Virginia.

WATCH Christine’s poem at Poets & Writers of Vending Machine Press: https://poetsandwritersofvmp.com/2017/03/27/a-call-to-the-stronger-sex-by-christine-stoddard/