詩 Anything Less Than This

Like Japanese vending machines
Sperm banks take credit cards
And hundred dollar bills
With a swab inside my mouth
An image on the screen
This could be your future kid
Complementary dildo applicator

Anything less than this is not feminism.

Society accepting, nay, welcoming
My biology, my flow,
My leaking milk
The mob rallies to my blood-stained banner
"Hey, she bleeds, asshole!
So deal with it!"
Like sweat stains twixt other limbs
A sacred badge of labor
Free of dangling strings
My body uninvaded

Bluetooth earring, smartphone app
Take my temperature at waking
Graph my fertility cycle
Put a billy on that willy
I want no baby from you today
A worthy sire in my sights
My phone gives me the green light
I know what my kids will look like
How smart they will be
Today's fairest girl-children
Will fawn over my sons the same as me
I'll take the milk and leave the cow go free
Chewing cud in his hotel room
Or in the 'loo at thirty thousand feet

Anything less than this is not feminism.

My midwife sends invitations
To my After-birth Party
Placental hors d'oeuvres
Delight revelers who celebrate
This greatest show of female power
This third awakening, bathed in blood
Like my mother's gift of red roses
At my second one, my sanguine baptism
A girl from my own blood-soaked birth
Henceforth a woman

Banks cater to me with savings plans
Residual income
Extra taxes paid by men
High school students wash my floors
Do my laundry, cook my food
While I'm nesting
Part-time work from home
I serve no master
No Rumpelstiltskin
Takes my babies from me
Male roommates pay my rent, my food
For the privilege of my presence
To inhale my calming pheromones
And the odd coffee with mother's milk

Chairs with slings
All cars have baby seats
Robotic arms hold them to my breast
As I drive, or work behind my desk
At the wheel or twixt ardent sheets
I drive stick, mother-fucker.

Anything less than this is not feminism.