When I Am Told to Buck Up to Fight the Good Fight to Pull Up My Boot Straps & Build Bridges But I Am Not Ready But I Know Damn Well I Should Be Ready So I Try:

Whoever despises the clitoris despises the penis

Whoever despises the penis despises the cunt

Whoever despises the cunt despises the life of the child.

muriel rukeyser

America, fuck you.

Let me be specific:

My mother's white America, fuck you.

& fuck me, too, because I didn't makea warrior of myself & disruptmy mother's comfort

by reminding her that the Presidentshe helped elect today doesn't give a shit about herconstitutional right to take pleasure in her sex

that can build a people, & thereforeher President doesn't care about meeither—the daughter she's claimed

she'd do anything to protect.What did I hope to preservewhen I kept my mouth shut

every time my mother spat nasty womanabout the woman who, regardless of everythingelse, is representative of what a vagina

is capable of: creating spacefor the matriarchy to extend beyondsingle-parent homes.

& here I am, as silentas I have been. I am woman, but I amwhite & have always had the power

to position myself as the matriarchof my own life—Katie,grab your mother by the pussy.

The long hallway that leadsto your first place of residence.Show your mother how the pussy

you inherited from her continues to nourishher country's citizens each timeit makes a well of itself & invites

those exhausted allies into drinkfrom the wetness that recycles itself like rain.Grab your mother by the pussy.

She's forgotten she has one, nowthat menopause has emptied herof what her motherless childhoodtaught her to be ashamed of—

Let me be specific:

My mother is humiliated by the bloodthat gave me life. Could give a shit if Trump fucks herover when he confirms her life-long lesson

that women are nasty, are rented-to-own,so long as he preserves her privilege,which she enlists as erasure

to mask her from the causalitiesAmerica has made of hergender & her sex.

According to the polls, 1 in 2 white womenmust unlearn the lesson that a pussy is nothingbut a middle-aged woman's fetid reservoir.

Do not forget how lucky we arethat with age the clit growsmore receptive to pleasure, regardless

of whether your husbandor your president or your saviorgives a shit about you.

If they won't do it,fuck yourselves.

I'm talking to you, Mom.You heard me. Go fuck yourself—make it hurtso good. Repossess your body.

Let me be specific: Mom,

grab yourself by the pussy. Relearnthe pressure your ridges respond best to,remember every time the man came first, so quick

your pussy never had a chance to swell its wetnessup into a spring. If you recall, that chafelasts days—the idea that a pussy

deems you're worthless: as long asyou let it. Mount your discomfort

& ride it into a futurewhere caring about yourselfmeans casting a vote for people

you've never met, & who are in fearmore constantly than youhave ever been. Do better. Do better

now. Your daughter demands thisof you—your daughter who hasn't until nowhad the strength to walk away from you

if you choose again to surrenderto the grating hand that grabs youlike a bitch by the collar of your sex.