Sometimes a woman must go
with herself
to a place
where she can be alive to the dark, unfriendly, & inhospitable
emotions that stir
beneath the white lie
of her smile.
She does this because her emotions put
her mind back into her body, where
she can breath,
create,
slither out of the snares
she walks into: naked doe dissected
day after day.
Every month she bleeds but it isn’t the blood that
costs her
dignity.
It isn’t the blood that threatens her, nor is it the emotions.
The threat is the short list of predators:
ego, fear, and
denial of herself as the doe, of life
in this barren land
as the scalpel.
Sometimes a woman must go
with herself
to a place
where she can smile
in the dark.