Bows In Their Hair Poem by colleen brennan

Never did it ever
Occur to
Add bows attach
To ponytail

Catholic school uniform
2nd hand from sisters
1st new pair of shoes
hungry and ill prepared

bows were on every girls
head
1st day of 1st grade
I felt completely unaware

To the norm the book
The expected
Of young white
Upper class Irish
Catholic little girls

Touch me how I want
So desperately to be held
Danced with like the other fathers do
Not hiding under the covers
I am from you

Look with raging
Hunger at the feast
My body prepares

AWAY WITH THE MIND
LET YOUR BODY
BE ANIMAL

Mentally abandoning
Shut off
Electing no one
To voice the voices
Amongst
The voices that
Voice energy
Voiced vexation
Vengeful vanity
Vermin the voices
Voice

All upstairs in one room
No break from work
Voice are always vegetating
Vicious voiced in the mind

Only those who
Are sensitive to
A worldly dimension that
Is beyond comprehension
Does one witness the torture man
With the voices
Inside his
Head

Inviting those voices all
Voices from their room
Inside his mind
Into mine
For a time
To give the man a moment
Of time
To experience
Peace of mind

I am the animal
I am the keeper
Of voices
Voicing
Vicious
Vows
Annihilating
The peaceful state

Admiration and envy
For the girls wearing bows in
Their hair
Prettier
Put together
Loved by their fathers