Split the labor of the children

I wrote this starting in 2004 and finishing in 2015

Can I trace my fingers along the route of your pain
promise I won't tell
against the window pane
you are so insane

Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France

Into the Americas and laundry machines?
reactive revolutions
poverty versus material wealth
split the labor of the children
into factories and laboratories
you take the eyelash butterfly kisses on the cheek
I will take the tantrums and the attitude
you take the good behavior
and confused wandering looks
I will take the shame of her blood on

You take the clutter
I will take the mess
I could listen for hours
and frown at your shoelaces
because I learned on Velcro
the younger are all about TIVO

I hated waiting in line
I hated when adults watched over
to see if I would tie the laces
in correct bows

Fuck Bow Ties

my election year is all about
the emancipation of the elements
the stories begin in trattorias
they begin with the Sioux
fry bread on the reservation
and poisoned water

they begin with tragedy
leathered skin and buffalo breath
they begin at the end.

you know what, my Muslim brothers?
My Christian brothers? My Buddhist Brothers?
My Jewish brothers?

and all others who think being in a female body
signifies a lesser being

Pussy has a name. Pussy is never generic.
A color, An identity
that does not fit in a photograph or a song
or any form of media you water
her down into
for convenience, some way
to take her with you
without taking her with you
without knowing her

without touching the essence
of her, though you thought of her
you thought of pussy
arousal was imminent.

you want to leave now, my Muslim brothers
my Christian brothers and all the other ones
who claim female bodies signify lesser beings
further away from spirit
without really touching her essence
but oh, how you explored her body.

Oh, how you explored her flesh.
And you may have thought she was
satiated. You may have thought
satisfaction occurred all around
and around you and her.

without touching her essence
with direct connection
to the ways in which she is divine
you have not even skimmed a surface
of what is possible inside
the spirit vessel
that formed
a female identity

While your Abrahamic interpretation
taints her like a dirty background to your
male perfection and absolution
paints her like a distraction
on your road to completion
sexual completion
religious completion

this is false sight my brothers
this is false teaching
my brothers
for within her is
the lamp lit for
the unspeakable types of pain in human existence
and you might not even know to look
she might not know where to point
inside, where to point inside?
anatomy is the empty shell of our skeletal mirror
it shows nothing beyond the first one or two dimensions

we are multidimensional beings
society banks on the fact that
women and certain others
do not find their worth, their light, their inherent power
their remembrance of the breath in
breath out
is what it all comes down to

we can teach more, give more, love more, laugh more
break the molds handed to us, if we are taught
how we
are not defined by the form we take
my brothers
this is the law
laid down at a beginning
we cannot grasp