Woman Life

She remembered

Before the menses

Before the ritual

 

Water rushing from

The falls between her legs

An ecstatic quivering

 

She chewed a plant

Another numbed her sex

Old women with knives

 

Now she was with ova

Her body a tool

For men and babies.

 

Grains to harvest

Firewood to collect

Children to nurse.

 

Woman life.