BlueIris
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Tue Sep-04-07 03:55 PM
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The BlueIris Semi-Nightly Poem Thread, 9/4/07 Bonus |
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Edited on Tue Sep-04-07 03:58 PM by BlueIris
"A Woman's Issue"
The woman in the spiked device that locks around the waist and between the legs, with holes in it like a tea strainer is Exhibit A.
The woman in black with a net window to see through and a four-inch wooden peg jammed up between her legs so she can't be raped is Exhibit B.
Exhibit C is the young girl dragged into the bush by the midwives and made to sing while they scrape the flesh from between her legs, then tie her thighs till she scabs over and is called healed. Now she can be married. For each childbirth they'll cut her open, then sew her up. Men like tight women. They ones that die are carefully buried.
The next exhibit lies flat on her back while eighty men a night move through her, ten an hour. She looks at the ceiling, listens to the door open and close. A bell keeps ringing. Nobody knows how she got here.
You'll notice that what they have in common is between the legs. Is this why wars are fought? Enemy territory, no man's land, to be entered furtively, fenced, owned but never surely, scene of these desperate forays at midnight, captures and sticky murders, doctors' rubber gloves greasy with blood, flesh made inert, the surge of your own uneasy power.
This is no museum. Who invented the word love?
—Margaret Atwood
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ThomCat
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Tue Sep-04-07 04:08 PM
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if women "owned" any portion of a man's anatomy as commonly and thoroughly as men seem to own women's vaginas?
Can anyone imagine a comparable situation?
No portion of my anatomy is anyone's business but my own, because I'm male. It is one of the many privilages of being male.
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BlueIris
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Tue Sep-04-07 04:10 PM
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2. Ah, an honest acknowledgment of the existence of male privilege. |
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Edited on Tue Sep-04-07 04:11 PM by BlueIris
Only from you, Thom.
:loveya:
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ThomCat
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Tue Sep-04-07 04:21 PM
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3. This poem is awesome, in a really tragic way. It makes the whole idea |
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of having ownership of your own body jump out at you. I take credit only for asking the obvious question. :)
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BlueIris
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Tue Sep-04-07 04:23 PM
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4. This is one of my favorite Atwood pieces. |
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I've always been most moved by the closing line, "Who invented the word love?"
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ThomCat
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Tue Sep-04-07 08:58 PM
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15. I've been thinking about that the entire way home from work. |
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Thank you for posting a powerful poem today. :)
:hug:
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BlueIris
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Tue Sep-04-07 04:58 PM
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ismnotwasm
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Tue Sep-04-07 05:10 PM
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6. That is incredibly powerful |
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Poetry like that moves me more than prose, in your face words with the sing song-style of the poet. It's interesting, because poetry can lull you, relax you, or keep you up at night thinking about it. This, I'll be thinking about.
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BlueIris
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Tue Sep-04-07 05:21 PM
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7. Well, someone did request something "powerful" for tonight. |
BlueIris
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Tue Sep-04-07 05:31 PM
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BlueIris
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Tue Sep-04-07 05:42 PM
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BlueIris
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Tue Sep-04-07 06:56 PM
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Callalily
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Tue Sep-04-07 07:00 PM
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How depressing. What horrific practices are honored in some cultures. :cry:
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BlueIris
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Tue Sep-04-07 09:51 PM
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16. I knew I'd get at least one "depressing" out of this. |
RetroLounge
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Tue Sep-04-07 07:02 PM
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Indeed
This is no museum. Who invented the word love?
RL
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skygazer
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Tue Sep-04-07 07:16 PM
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13. Well, that certainly is powerful |
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Margaret Atwood rocks - she gets right to the painful heart of the matter.
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wildhorses
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Tue Sep-04-07 07:48 PM
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BlueIris
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Wed Sep-05-07 12:56 AM
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