Resisting Female Contingency
Joanna Omestad
after Adrienne Rich
Everything wanted and hated is called she—
earth, ocean, ship, vessel all she can be
is a vessel
for children for men for problems for the world
Calendars etched on ancient bones
counted 28 days
in a month because only women are
betrothed to their own blood
Relying for too long on gaslit heat that
wilts canopies of leaves and boils
oceans of saltwater, it scorches
instead of warms, shatters
instead of welds, welts instead of welds
The glass we have to learn how to walk on—
bottling feelings that leave with the tide
and wash up on other continents, shrapnel
from internal battles that can never be won
I’m so heavy in this body in this cloud
of smoke
so heavy in the light
I am like a moth to you, a bad butterfly
with tattered wings that no longer levitate
I bleed bleach
and my pores
leak silicone but not of my own design
and I am
an instrument in the shape of a woman
slowly bending into my own form
and I am tired of marble being heavier
than wood, when wood
can ignite flame
Joanna Omestad is a senior undergraduate at the University of Maryland from Bethesda, Maryland. She is obtaining a B.A. in psychology, a certificate in women’s studies, and a creative writing minor.