Feat of Women

Our feet are beautiful
The calluses that grow into shelves
To catch our tears
Are beautiful
They are worn-in
Black smooth leather
Chasing after beasts, breasts wild
Wielding spears
Screaming battle cries
UHHYAHHH!
They are our history
They are a (gasp)
Gasp for breath
As they are tied and broken and bound
Into things inhumanly small
And they are relief
Coming in shoots of bamboo pain
As the shoes are torn from us
Mixed with blood and hate
And sex
And tossed to the floor for
The right to vote
The right to hope
So now we go barefoot
Marching in an army
To place flowers in gun barrels
Just to be broken down again
Our feet are persistence
Bleeding out the grime and sand and
Lies
That have been lodged in
The wrinkles and cuts from times
When walking was not
Enough
Because we ran in the paved cities
When there was no one and
Everyone
Watching
Conditioned to
Stare blindly
At those mad women
Running from their chains
Our feet are beautiful
Carrying fifteen extra pounds or more
Of soon to be born
Body of love
And complaining but remaining
Standing nonetheless
And they are beautiful
Swollen and weak
Bringing tears to our eyes
Confronting our fears as
Rough hands catch us and
Hold us and
Let us cry
When the memory of mothers and
Notion of motherhood
Is commotion in our heads
And out feet wait to stand again
Holding small fingers
Caressing small toes
That may walk soon enough
So that we may take
A break
Our feet are beautiful