INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY MARCH 8, 2021

by Clarissa Simmens


MAIDEN AM I

Wandering into a coffee house
Folk guitars fretting the spring air
The words Social Justice echoing everywhere
Book recommendations flung at me
As my adrenaline pumps
Fueled by espresso caffeine
Chain smoking
But unimpressed with toking
Because it stole my essence
Stole ME from ME
Hearts should race with the joy of life
While the seductive music led me on
The boys/men promising love
And I step back gazing
At so many paths up the mountain of youth
But it would be years until I learned
They wouldn’t lead to the same place
Impossible to know, no?
At the age of almost sixteen…

MOTHER AM  I

Dedicated to all us working poor:
I know the pain of a
Rotting car in the rain
Buckets of rain
Wipers refusing to work
Abandoning the car off the road
Running for the bus
The one that only comes
Every two hours
Trying to get to the
Community College
To take my last final exam
After attending four years
To get an Associate’s Degree
Working, mothering, studying
Running for the bus
No umbrella
Bringing the boys to daycare
Dragging an autistic six-year-old
In the middle of a melt-down
While carrying a three-year-old
Trying to make that bus
Trying to get that degree
Trying to get a better paying job
Running for the bus
All the while whispering
“Please, please, please, please…”

MAGE AM  I

Wise woman with a tribal birthright
Finally one who can read and write
In the swirling of oral traditions
Setting out laws and conditions
Eidetic memory of who begat whom
And which herb cures which symptom
Advising the tribal leader’s visions
As he ponders correct decisions
Gently teaching oracles and healers
How to be revealers but also concealers
Divine feminine in silent contemplation
Willing to share her prognostication
Knowledge she will quietly disperse
Knowing all secrets of the universe
Arcana like the Moon’s fluorescing
The High Priestess gladly illuminates her blessing…


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Clarissa Simmens holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and various practitioner certificates in Herbal Studies (first learned from her Grandmother), Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Gi-Jo Acupressure. She is the author of seventeen poetry books available through Amazon. Writing poetry led to translating words into song lyrics and learning to play the baritone ukulele. She makes her home on the edge of a small swamp in Florida where she dreams and sings to the calls of Sand Hill Cranes, the crackling of scampering animals, and the croaking of off-key bull frogs.
https://www.facebook.com/RomaniGypsyBooks
https://poeturja.wordpress.com/
http://t.co/JSvNROn15t (Amazon Author Page)