Andrew Delapruch Poet Free verse

The C Word

it’s said by women to women 
that the most offensive word
(in the english language)
they can be called is
the C word---
this word cannot be uttered by men around women,
it’s said by women to men, 
it’s said by men to men 
when conversing about the women who told them
amidst other women or 
alone
without other women present.

all words stumble round its usage like 
a toddler
meandering across a 
fresh patch of ice in slippers made of
butter.

as cyanide in your favorite drink or
perhaps something of a barbed wire jockstrap
you know better than to tread that water,
best to swim instead of sink---
but men will call each other this word
like its nobody’s business
especially in england
and it’s laughable
how quickly its forgotten that women still
frequent 
these areas said to be inhabited only by those with
penises---
it is still a word isn’t it?
one of many,
whose disgustingness has brought violence with them 
for hundreds if not
thousands of years.

so will this word be picked up by women who
feel its usage to be violent, misogynistic & vile, 
only then subsequently appropriating it for their own
giving it new meaning?

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John Smith September 20, 2011 at 7:28 AM The 'C' word was first writ in 1503 by Scots poet Wm Dunbar when he called his friend, Kennedy, 'c...bitten.' He meant he had a sexually transmitted disease. He also, first put our 'F' word in print. We owe him so much. Love your poem. It's fun to explore the taboos.