RADICALIZED
by Elizabeth McMunn-Tetangco
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| Image source: RCOG Globeal Network International Women’s Day Page |
The main thing was, she
listened. A
cliché.
So we told her
everything: how we cared
how we couldn’t
stand
watching all the news, how sad we felt.
She said we’re right. We told her
more: little
slips like pretty dolls
with long loose hair
laid on their backs –
here: the teacher
who won’t look
at us
my mother’s glass of brandy
every night,
her soft red cheeks.
She said the answer and it was
the one we wanted.
On the big plane
looking down
at the dark world we held
our coats wrapped tight
as love
around our ribs. The future waited like a bear,
still asleep.
Elizabeth McMunn-Tetangco lives in California's Central Valley, where she works as a librarian. Her poems have appeared in Word Riot, Hobart, decomP, The Tule Review, and Right Hand Pointing, among others.
