KATE GALE
In All the Movies
Men push back the women,
take the horses.
Women rake leaves, fill
pails of water, stack wood.
Men ride off, row shallow
boats, sail big ships.
Women crowd the
marketplace, buy ribbons.
When the men come to a new
town, they demand food.
Drinks, beds, music,
stories. The women provide all this.
The men take their stories
to the next town and sell them.
Sleep with new women. Eat
their food.
Men thrust feet into
boots. Walk all over God’s world.
Women corral their
children, teach them to read.
Women plant roses and
summer squash.
Men buy roses for other
women.
We cry along the
riverbank. Give us roses.
Give us stories and books,
make us sing.
The men ride by, laugh,
pause to see us wet.
Stooping to wash linens
and catch fish.
We wave them on, Don’t
stop and stare, we say.
Your rage is air. Give us something we can taste.
Give us darkness between
your legs, they say.
We’re all darkness we say,
we’re nothing but darkness.
Kate Gale is Co-founder and Managing Editor of Red Hen Press, author of six librettos and seven books of poetry.
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Darkness darkness. How decades of movies comes together in one poem. Brava, Kate Gale
ReplyDeleteThank you, Mary, true, we are delighted to have her in the Special Issue!
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