Thursday Short Poem: Candelaria's "Confessions"

One young poet whose work I'm starting to like is Berkeley's own Xochitl Candelaria: 

Confessions of a Female

"No" is not a word that we are conditioned to use.
Instead we might laugh or say maybe or thank you or yes.

We also see parts of the crenelated whole
and the whole part as beautiful.

We might start to like your choice
of words and for a while that is enough.

We might think you look a bit rough and want
to teach you the difference between soap and style.

The words "I love you, but" do not amount to a contradiction.
For light has always been both particle and a wave.

We are likely to save small things-bead by bead
fascinated by the intricate daring of the infinitesimal.

Saddled with sharing, we unconsciously lament the loss
of the cliff dwelling where you can lift up the bone ladder.

I may be just an old white boy, but this rings right to me.  In my women's studies classes, I meet far too many young women "saddled with sharing."   Sometimes, good teaching and good advocacy is about helping them to reclaim a private dwelling where "you can lift up the bone ladder" and learn what it means to say "no."

Comments

[annika]

"'No' is not a word that we are conditioned to use.
Instead we might laugh or say maybe or thank you or yes."

Mixed signals. for instance if the guy asks "are you still into your ex?" and the girl says "i don't know" that could mean "yes, and i just slept with him."

[Hugo]

Ooof. Hah.