POETRY

Not Unchosen

For women taught that being chosen by a man was the same as being loved

Photo by Chase Yi on Unsplash

This poem grew from the work of Patsy Fergusson, whose poem opened the door for these lines.

Not your man. Not his name, not his hunger, not his shadow measuring your light.

A woman can be a house with every window open.

She can be fire without waiting to be hearth.

She can be loved without being owned, held without being handled, seen without being chosen.

Let them call her old maid, witch, difficult, too much.

She has heard worse names from smaller rooms.

Small rooms have always called open windows dangerous.

She is not unchosen.

She is returning the burden of being picked by hands that never learned how to hold.

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