The Bloody Bloody Truth Poem by EJ Dirge

Here is the bloody clotted truth
If men had periods
It would be a badge of honor
A war wound
A gaping hole where their masculinity fit just right

If men had periods it would be called an exclamation point
And you wouldn't see them at work or school for that full week
Or maybe you would
Because the cramps would have been ironed out by medication
And the blood would be as light as snow in July

But if they bled like we bled
We would never hear the end of it
And they would tell us you don't understand
You don't get it
You don't have to bleed for a week straight

Women would know everything about their cycles
And that cycle would cycle through everyone's heads constantly
Don't bother Joe with that he's on his period
There would be tampons in every urinal
Or rather
They would have made a way to staunch the bleeding that didn't look and feel like a torture device
And they would openly discuss it
No whispering behind closed hands
No pads tucked up sleeves
It would be as bold and as red as the blood that poured from them

Because if men had periods they would use it as an attack
As a way to pad their worlds with even more privilege
And yet another way to tamp down those that dare to rise up around them
And their red sea would carry away everyone on a bloody tide higher than Noah's ark could ever survive
Two of every animal? What's the point when only one of them matters

Because if men had periods maybe women would be fully extinct
A long forgotten relic of bodies that curved

Or maybe they would have led us to believe a thousand years ago that their bleeding hurt more than ours
That their red spillage was somehow more expensive

There is only one thing I know for certain
The invention of their eggs would result in our hen houses being sealed
Because to be a rooster is to have power
To crow at the sun and believe that you were the one who lifted it in the sky

The bloody bloody truth is this
No cute word play
And no gracious cutting away from the gore
If men had periods they would have figured out how to solve every single issue with them from the moment one of them first bled
Or maybe
Maybe if men had periods they would be the ones told to be silent
And still
And as unobtrusive at the period at the end of this poem.