TENDER BLOWS

by Patricia Phillips-Batoma

For Imane Khelif

After Gertrude Stein

 

 

Imane Khelif, boxing amid online furor, wins Olympic gold. Khelif, a female fighter from Algeria, was the target of online hate after a Russia-linked boxing organization claimed she failed a “gender eligibility” test. —The Washington Post, August 9, 2024

What is the body that carries the load. That blooms it. What is the body that carries the word and pins on satin, linen, jersey or chiffon. What is this body.

What is a woman, what is she.

Where is the eligible fist, it is the daughter’s fist sleeping darkly as an embryo whorl inside a seed, the way fingers curl inside a boxing glove. See it there in every language of blood, see it in all the colors of blood. It abides no shaming. It just abides no shaming.

Patricia Phillips-Batoma is a writer and teacher who lives in Illinois. She has published poems in Skylight 47, An Capall Dorcha, The New Verse News, Off Course, and Spilling Cocoa over Martin Amis.