FOR GLORIA STEINEM

by Bonnie Proudfoot

Image by James Housand via Shutterstock

Goddam the boss’ hands,

the father’s tantrums, 

the mother’s tears, goddam

the glass ceiling, the broken

feeling, the casting couch 

and teacher’s pet, the face

slap, the butt pat, Phyllis Schlaffly

and June Cleaver, goddam

the eyes that stared at my

chest when I gave it my best,

the shoulder shrug, the what’s

it to you, the quid pro quo, the

that’s how it go, the go along

to get along, the pecking order,

the firing line, the patronizing,

the patriarchy, the aspirations,

the late ratifications, just

pass the damn Equal Rights

Amendment, and then

for the love of Gloria, Betty,

Bella, Shirley, and Dolly,

enforce the damn thing.

 

Bonnie Proudfoot used to read MS magazine as soon as it came out every month for free in the bookstore in the student union at the University of Buffalo. She pretended she was browsing. It was life-changing.

THE TENDER THINGS

by Janette Schafer

after “We Have Not Long to Love” by Tennessee Williams 

The tender things are those we fold away. 

The lover who didn’t stay, would not say why.

The nephew who’d be the perfect son if only

he could stop drinking. A crow who eats berries

off your front porch until he doesn’t. A mother

who remembers the girl you were at 17, 

and only talks to that child even when she’s 53.

A sister who believes every cuss word is

a demon to cast out. A husband who thinks

every bad day at work is a reason to cheat. 

You’d like the world to try a little tenderness—

except that now Dolly Parton is dead, and today

you needed any ray of sunshine—

so you reach the end of a cassette, hit rewind.

Janette Schafer is a poet, photographer, playwright, and realtor living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She holds an MFA in Poetry from Chatham University. She is the author of three collections of poetry and the chief editor of two poetry anthologies. Her writing and photographs have appeared in numerous journals, newspapers, and websites, including Vox Populi, The Missouri Review, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and SWWIM.  She is a winner of the Academy of American Poets Prize. 

HARD CANDY CHRISTMAS

by Deborah Bacharach

I do jazzercise, and I get the joke.

We did it to ourselves, all those neon yellow

faux sexy tights under high-cut leotards.

The frayed silk flowers.

 

And even as we get older and older, corporate 

still won’t leave us be. 

We have to bring our sweet familiar

step-together-step-hop to whatever’s 

climbing the pop chart. Except for

 

Christmas when we get to move

to Hard Candy Christmas.

 

I only know Dolly as a big-busted joke, 

cringe at her platinum wigs.

But when she sings

maybe I’ll dye my hair,

maybe I’ll lose some weight

 

each word is a piece of tinsel.

I feel part of something that matters—

hearing someone in pain,

not dancing away.

Deborah Bacharach is the author of Shake & Tremor (Grayson Books, 2021) and After I Stop Lying (Cherry Grove Collections, 2015). Her work has recently appeared in Poetry East, Last Syllable, Only Poems, and Grist among many other journals, and she has received a Pushcart prize honorable mention. She is a poetry reader for The American Journal of Nursing, SWWIM and Whale Road Review.

HELL AND HEAVEN

by Gifford Savage

Pakistani police have arrested Shahzaib Khan who allegedly shot dead his seven-day-old baby girl because he wanted his first-born to be a son. The incident took place on Monday in the Mianwali city of Pakistan’s Punjab province where the father had first escaped after firing multiple shots at the infant, according to police officials. The baby girl (pictured above)—named Jannat, meaning “heaven” in Urdu—was hit by five bullets and died instantly, Mianwali police officer Hayatullah Khan said. —yahoo!news, March 9, 2022, since updated from reports on Twitter.

Hell in Ukraine kept Heaven from the headlines,

pushed her far down the online newsfeeds—

as inevitably it would.

More important breaking news took precedence:

Donald Trump asked his supporters to fund a new private jet

Lauren Boebert and 'Prince John'

Nicki Minaj’s butt injections

Dolly’s latest release,

something about Harry & Megan—

(because there’s always something

about Harry and Megan).

On the day after International Women’s Day

Heaven’s seven days on earth

were only a footnote

far down the pecking order.

Her little life hardly a ripple in the big scheme.

Shot five times

for being a girl

when daddy had wanted a boy.

Gifford Savage is from Bangor, Northern Ireland. His poetry has appeared in a number of journals including Poetry NI, Lagan Online, Poetry 24, and the Bangor Literary Journal. He has performed his poetry on local television station ‘Northern Visions TV.’