If we acknowledge Mother Earth,
How is it we discount her daughters?
If might doesn't make right,
What have we left out of the world?
What do we make of this world… that was made for us?
If we look up to Father Sky,
Is that why we look down on Mother Earth?
Or have we put words in the mouth of the wind,
When we mouth the words of our fathers?
Have we not learned from whence they came?
There was a woman, singing a sore song.
Soft savoury salvation in her tongue :
"Freedom for some, leave the others to rot,
A heron sent flying, and magpie sought."
There was a woman, with birds in her mouth,
Tweeting twinkling tunes, headed to the south.
Those folk listen, take word for opinion-
"All are built to solve the equation!"
There was a woman,- that's not right at all!
There is string and sticks attached round back,
And, there, a speaking gull stands oh so tall!
He squawks out loud talks, to impress the hawks,
And faced with words, prepares his attack.
Through his puppet's lips, holding her pitch forks.
Mother, Mother?
Stand aside.
While we pass this cup among us.
Corruption of your love?
Our pity and sorrow overflow.
Who of us has not surrendered for a price,
for the security of loved ones?
Hands held forth for silver,
standing in line to kiss the lips of betrayal.
Our pioneer forefathers
hungry, ambitious, deadly.
Conquered new frontiers,
and labored in genocide.
Massacring 'the others',
while affirming their righteousness before God.
Guilt washed clean by baptismal water.
The garden is too wild, too natural
it must conform, must be tamed.
The fruit from the tree of knowledge
left to fall, forbidden.
We turned away from her.
Smashing statues in mob frenzy,
persecuting in the name
of a Hypatia hating patriarchy.
We abandon our once sacred trust
seeking dominion of a world
that can only love us in return.
The lamb that nuzzles the slaughter's hand.
The bride that lifts her veil to kiss
a misogynist man.
What is love, really—
a figment of hope
sharp enough to shatter
centuries of lived patriarchy?
To think
education could make a dent
in what’s already carved
in bone & name.
To think
a stranger could be chosen
over the familial veins of caste, of home
over the womb of belief one never questioned.
Perhaps what’s
whispered in secret
was always meant to be hidden—
buried, before it flowers into regret.
Does it even matter—
your thoughts,
these societal norms, yourself?
whether you’re religious, or not?
What really makes one unique,
when the future already beholds
what always has been,
and what will be?
Destiny.
to think one is different—
to think everyone
is just the same.
To think
all that ever transpired
got fizzled on a random night
that never belonged to me.
Society sets standards of perfection
The patriarchy has decided that all women must act like ladies
Prim and proper, do as you are told.
For years men set the stage for the "ideal women"
Perfect hair, perfect body, always on their best behavior
We stand up for ourselves but are told not to be foolish.
We are told to hide our bodies if they do not fit the standards thrust upon us,
But the moment that we do, we are no longer loyal, and proper.
Most girls are told to achieve perfection,
But few, just want to be good enough for someone to love her.
She hopes that someday, someone will see that perfection is a construct of the past.
Wanting nothing but to be accepted as she is.
She never wanted nor needed to be perfect,
She honestly, just tried to be enough.
Behind Summer's fullness
richness,
nutritional and nurturing sunlight
empowering bounty
Lies another deep
darker sacred truth
of EarthTribe's inevitable mortality,
death
loss
cosmic stress
universal trauma
MonoTheistic distrust,
disaster,
despair
of patriarchal autonomous
lonely at the top
supremacy
MonoPolistic colonizing,
divisive,
aggressive,
violent,
rapacious,
racist,
sexist,
terrorist
climatic pathology
MonoCulturing Straight Western Male
historic white
protagonist light,
choosing win/lose inside voices
over win/win outside choices
is not so healthily bright
Against deep dark green
ecofeminist
co-passionate
co-empathic
co-arising bicameral
panentheistic empowering
harmonic mindful balance,
EarthTribally accessible
democratic co-enlightenment.
When Heard dared to question her partner,
men suited up in outraged armour.
Battling patriarchy,
this ‘feminist’ malarkey,
makes women prey and men the archer.
There is a horrible hollow ache inside me,
That murky feeling of being loved ,
That love which keeps a section apart ;
Fills the void with sadness and betrayal.
That feeling captured & wrapped around with distrust & dishonesty ,
My eyes brimmed with tears of disbelief ,
A society with patriarchy and misogyny ;
Are so selfish & yet so hopeless .
Excruciating story of millions ,
Abandoned by their families ,
And yet finding light in the darkness ;
Looking for a Messiah , to bless them .
That incongruous feeling will never die ,
It will remain buried under the deep core of the heart .
Dogmatic supremacy,
loyalty to divinely-inspired causes
of a nation
or denomination
or religion
or tribe
chosen to be blessed
above all others,
dismissed
and denied full Love Matters
significance,
Is rather like evangelical capitalism,
an anti-ecological colonization,
pushing win/lose
us or them strategies
in which runaway economic competition
is right,
righteous,
sacred duty for evolving monotheistic historic might
of divinely blessed
StraightWhiteMale transcendent
sins of anthrosupremacism
LeftBrain verbal dominant
reduction to either TruePower
or FalseLight
fundamental dualistic deductions
Uninformed
but not unformed
by ecologically inclusive loyalty
empowering poly-theological solidarity
win/win cooperatively enlightening systems,
Perpetually more inclusive
of possible inductive/deductive resolutions
embracing more than reductive traumatic dissonance,
enlightening deeper intuitive compassion
for narrating WholeEarth mediating
ecowomanist GoldenRule conclusions.
Ecological healthy loyalty
serving
empowering
enlightening theological wealthy solidarity
of all nature/spirit polypathic EarthTribes.
O' Woman !
You are not some Damsel in Distress ,
And Surely no less than an Empress .
Never Let Patriarchy Wither your Madness,
Isn't it Minute for all the Life and Gladness ?
The time has come to awaken the Inner Goddess in You,
For the Audacity often comes out of the Blue.
Now You are Stronger after Surviving that Storm,
Unleash Your Inner Beast for now is the time to Perform.
Democratically effective governance
of people
plants
places
and planets
cannot begin with degenerative violence,
strategic starvation of indigenous populations,
without ending as militant predation,
Which does not sound like healthy
trusting
and cooperative co-invested democracy
even to a child
familiar with playground bullies.
Rather than roots in "retributive justice"
revenge
punishment
exploitation
extraction
enforced conversion
religiously licit order,
healthy democracy stems from restorative win/win peace,
multicultural ego-natural eco-spirits
listening for biosystemic sacred wisdom,
At least interdependent wisdom enough
to avoid militaristic patriarchal predation
and pollution
of all that Earth holds sacred.
To I never wanted to be born
Never wanted to be bound
To this worlds bonds where expectations and disappointment is all tht surrounds
I never wanted to be born
Never wanted to be bound
In the chains of society in the ropes of superstition
Where curiosity is burnt to ground
I never wanted to be born
Never wanted to be bound
In this world which goes around like a machine without a sound
Silence that prevailed after every reason muffled to my dismay
Where a paper matters more than the knowledge u gained
With all the mugged up genius and none to find a way
That's how this world rotates
And behold silence shall prevail
I am the grass
on a windy day,
held back
by its own roots.
i am a horse
with blinders on its eyes,
you use me
to feel powerful.
and i connive
to the fiction
that you are stronger,
better.
because of you
i think about the length of my dress
and nod when they say
i should talk less.
and I accept
the suffering
because I know
you suffer too.
I remember,
you use to like dolls
when you were young
and innocent.
you use to
not cry secretly
away from the eye
like you do now.
then why am I
the only one fighting?
it is not a battle of the sexes,
after all.
so i declare,
I am not powerful like you,
for power is not
domination.
that i am not
the epitome of beauty,
for beauty is not
unrealistic standards.
i am not well mannered
like the aunties,
for manners is not
obedience.
i am, however, a demon
ready to be unleashed,
held back momentarily
by the chains of patriarchy.
daddy long legs spinning its' web from the ceiling
8 legs of terror, to 8 years of life as a kid.
monster under the bed hurry,
big terrible eyes, gleaming at me from the dark unknown corner.
go wake your mother from her slumber, Dad must rest.
modern fear is 17
dead in parkland at the hands of
a madman, yet mental illness should not be the
cause of FEAR.
Fear, fear, fear,
what do I - a young girl have to fear?
sexual assault, being told I
lack authority because I am a female.
Do not! shrink the power of my gender identity, I do not fear the tall white men who believe their distress
must stay hidden beneath their black engulfing suits
whispering degrading slurs about our temples-our bodies
because fear is weakness, and what is weakness if not a delicate flower ripped from its deep roots in the soil?
weakness is not the white man!
the all-consuming, terror-inducing mastermind
behind fear is you.
Only you allow yourself to be afraid
when we find enough strength in love and hope,
nothing will hold us back
-Katherine Beth
He ruled his kingdom with an iron fist
all looked up to the earl of otherworld.
Women sighed over his handsome face,
his manly stature and his sense of humour.
His heir and son was cultivated and charming.
Yet the earl's wife was a fiery woman of red hair
with an hourglass figure she tempted and teased.
He was putty in her hands when she flirted.
His warriors would follow him to certain death
such was their trust in his leadership and skills.
His earldom was both strong and rich in arts,
jewels with bounteous harvests of fruit and grains.
His once many enemies were now scattered and few.
He gazed out over his kingdom and knew with certainty
that all was ready for the day he was no more
that his son would carry on capably in his footsteps.
He knew he would be remembered with relevance
that many would mourn his Rite of Passage
after all he was the patrician all he beheld
and he ruled all with wisdom and strength.
written 07/17/2015
contest Patriarchy
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