Cormorant

“Zhang Zhan risked everything to report on Covid-19 when it first appeared in Wuhan, China. In February 2020, she decided to travel to Wuhan as a citizen journalist in order to provide on-the-ground information about what was happening there. The former lawyer took to social media, reporting how government officials had detained independent reporters and harassed families of Covid-19 patients.

Zhang Zhan went missing in Wuhan in May 2020. She had been taken by the Chinese authorities and detained in Shanghai. The judge sentenced her to four years in prison for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”. The authorities refuse to let her see her family.” – Amnesty International #freezhangzhan

“Taliban security forces fanned out to some universities and informal learning centers in Kabul on Wednesday, teachers said, enforcing an edict issued the night before that appears to have banned most females from any education beyond the sixth grade.” – NPR December 21, 2022

We have a bad rap
don’t we? arms wide
drying and wanting
everything –
books to read
stories to write
learning and independence
and getting
nothing but a bad rap
when we want to walk the
street alone
tsk, tsk little girls need
brothers and fathers
and old husbands to
decide everything
in their lives

We get a bad rap
don’t we?
when we spread
our wings
open to the sky
the sun
drying off the
water as
it clings to us
weight shutting us
down

Always juxtaposition
extinction or
plenty
we have had both
haven’t we?
and all we want
is a bite
just a bite to
satisfy hunger – the
itch for a fish
or a bit of
wisdom
but of course
there are those
who would
clip our wings
stifle and soak
us to the point
where we
cannot even
crawl

Cruelty can be
intentional or
just plain ignorant
yet, however it occurs
it is deadly to those
who are only
being themselves
as they were born
and yet and yet
those webbed feet
of yours this
propensity to trespass
foolish bird
silly girl
go to the back
of the classroom
sidle right out
the door
they never wanted
you here did they
I guess you’ll
just have to make
a life of your own
outside the norm
spread those wings
of yours anyways

1-2023