We Collapse on Soft Snow After Complaining About the Male Gaze

Just because I see the blue in his eyes,

Doesn’t mean I care.

With sweeping snow that shifts underneath our feet like salt

We talk about how the internet has only pierced

Our brains, and show us how males view

Our existence on this earth, like it is meant

To please others, like it is our duty.

Elise shakes some flakes resting on her shoulders

And tells me about her brother’s

Deepening root that curses his sisters and mother,

It’s infected growth that resides under our houses,

That murder our sisters.

To him, it’s merely a poke or tease.

To live in the choking grips of these roots is different

I keep my hair long so that my father approves

And my leg hair short, for my boyfriend’s,

But Elise walks beside me, and I feel like

As women, we don’t have to feign interest for our safety.

Like the words of a man wouldn’t have made me

Try to jump out of the rolling car, wrists grabbed

Before I could find my shoes in the passenger seat

And listen to him cry about life.

I don’t want to be in a room alone with my father

Or anyone’s father,

I am simply a withered worm among the roots of a tall, dark tree

that poisons the damp soil and the frigid air

The ego that separates us further

Calls us females like a specimen

We pass the frozen trees and the quiet park

A virginal white that could hear whispers from

Crowds away, we break the silence with raucous laughter

On how we feel watched by every dog that passes,

Who only feed off of a hunger that excuses predatory behavior

But I am tired of arguing,

My aching shoulders hang

As these gazes return on us

Heavy with their gazes, I turn,

But I won’t remain in the quiet snow.

It seems natural,

That we breathe the cold air into our lungs

That rushes into our mouths like war,

Like anarchy, fueling the only voice we have.