Emily Westphal

Emily Westphal Poems

The Best Poem Of Emily Westphal

Curves

Just because my lines are curves you think I couldn’t possibly fit into your corporate mold without flexing my sexual hold on the male human resources employee who gave me this job? Oh, and I chose my words carefully just like you do when you say the human resources man gave me my job, because how could a woman with my sex appeal and high heels earn a position in a corporate world, it had to be handed to me right? But the low ponytailed woman whose Clark dress shoes maintain that she is 3 inches shorter than you, whose ill fitting pantsuit secures that her corporate look falls flat standing next to you and your 3 piece suit. No, I will not apologize for being taller than you, the fact that I intimidate the hell out of you. Because women like me are not taken seriously, no, women like me are just taken. Taken by men like you and turned into a shadow of what we could have become, taken into Plato’s cave and told that what we see is real. I will not apologize for second guessing those shadows, for doubting the lines that flicker, for discovering this scene you have chained me to see is not real. So when you respond to my opinions with the words, “you’re pretty, ” your words chain you to the cave you belong in.

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