They try to make Men Explain Things to Me,
In A Room of One’s Own,
with The Yellow Wallpaper
doing What We’re Told Not To Talk About,
Against Our Will.
But I belong with Women Who Run With Wolves
and I will tell The Handmaid’s Tale,
read it out loud from The Golden Notebook!
Because The body Is Not an Apology,
No one should be labelled
The Second Sex
and This Bridge Called My Back
has carried their voices between heartbeats.
I’ve felt the tears drop upon my spine,
connecting our Sister Outsider
who wears the Backlash
as a shield because she is
The Woman Warrior.
They say she’s a Bad Feminist
for seeing through The Beauty Myth
with The Bluest Eye,
fragranced of The Feminine Mystique.
Now I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
It’s like being stuck inside The Bell Jar
as they try to teach me How To Be A Woman
saying Feminists Don’t Wear Pink and other lies
But Ain’t I a Woman?
Aren’t we all In Search Of Our Mother’s Gardens?
You’ll see after The Awakening
We Should All Be Feminists.
When God Was a Woman
(she might have been a Girl Interrupted once),
but now she sings strong and
Shrill: Notes From A Loud Woman
They all thought she must be mad

But The witch doesn’t burn in this one.

You can read more of Michelle’s writing at Soul Kissing