Making Pictures Without Red Poem by The Poet SPIEL

she draws in dullard greys and black
plus dirty browns where other women
might choose to use the color red

she makes pictures of the women
in her life beginning with the one
who refused to suckle her

because that woman who chose to hide
her spots of red where mother's milk insists
dammed it back in shame for them

she scribbles her woman dirty grey with
black gashes where their eyes and ears
should be and where their legs should cross

then gouges out with sharpened brown
those two big red spots similar to her own
that she must never show nor speak of

nor most of all allow to be touched
oh dear god why must they be there
to drive her through such tribulations

but with such unquenched thirst yet
revulsion at the thought that every woman must bear
such spots and for only half the function
of the lowly cow

yet the lowly cow is not ashamed to nurse
she peacefully enjoys her cud while sharing
her milk
and only after the nurturing is done
she kicks her calf away

no need for gouging brown
no black gashes
making pictures of the cow
what terrible thing must have gone astray
with her own red spots

she scribbles her woman black, brown and grey
then waits till she believes no one can imagine
what she might be thinking

she sneaks a touch of them
then pretends to draw milk from her…uhh…
…but she dares not say that word

for spoken thoughts of spots of red
just might strike her dead

_____The Poet SPIEL