The Agency of the Women

On the paper I drew a stick girl,
with a triangle skirt
and a bow in her Carol Brady hair.
In the word bubble above her head I wrote “I love cookies”

The assignment was to create a new form of the written language
and she is the new exclamation point.
Anything within that bubble becomes exclamatory.

I entered a race and was placed into the Amazon class
to run against other women
whose thighs rub together,
who shake the ground when they run.
I was embarrassed when I finished first.

As I walked through the locker room,
a girl told me “You look just like Botticelli’s Venus.”
She was complementary.
But I was dismayed, when I stood in front of the mirror,
I didn’t see what I liked or like what I saw.

There used to be giants: women
with big butts, big breasts, big stomachs, big arms, and lots of hair.
They ruled the world and created life and then went out of fashion.

At the library, I poured through the books,
And learned about how Ra created mankind
alone
or how bronze overthrew the matriarch.
I became incredulous.

So I studied the brush strokes and history.
I stood up and trumpets broke the silence and cherubs hovered about
and in the word bubble above my head I wrote
“Try to create the world without me I do love cookies”

Then I stepped into my clam shell and floated away.