Monday, April 18, 2022

Gina Puorro’s I Hear There’s a Bounty on My Womb—National Poetry Month 2022

Gina Puorro.

Gina Puorro describes herself this way:  “I am a student of magic, love, grief, intimacy, myth and story, ritual arts, and the wild and vast terrain that we call nature.  My writing is inspired by the exploration of good questions, by relating with my human and non-human kin, and by my pursuit of beauty and awe.  I hope to live with my heart open, my voice free, my mind curious, and my feet rooted in love.”

She blogs and shares her poems at Gina M. Puorro Writer and Poet.  Her new book is The Wild Will Call You Back now available on Amazon.

                                       Puorro's new book of poetry and prose is available on Amazon.

I Hear There’s a Bounty on My Womb

I hear there’s a bounty on my womb.

A high price in the currency

of power and control.

In the currency

of violence

and cowardice.

 

You want to make a home in this body.

Penetrate it with your power and lust

and demand I carry the seed you’ve planted

pretending to protect the sacred

when we both know

your concern is for birth

and not for life.

I’ve seen the way you watch

as young mouths go unfed

as young arms are torn from their mother’s embrace

as young bodies are raped and ravaged and locked away

in the land of the free

and home of the brave.

 

You read me ghost stories

from the good book

about purity

and innocence

and all the ways my body is wrong

and all the ways my body does not belong to me.

But I prefer different fairy tales.

The ones that were woven from an

ancient mother’s womb

whispered to her from deep in the earth.

The ones that teach me

that I am fire and water

that I am land and thunder

that I am holy and sacred

that I am the great creator and destroyer

that I belong to me

and only me

and I alone

will decide.

 

I hear there’s a bounty on my womb

but you seem to forget

that I am the huntress

and I can smell the fear

dripping from your cowardly words

and I dare you to try and hold my fire

in your bare, trembling hands.

Gina Puorro


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