Imagine {a Poem for International Women's Day}

Living in a world
where old women were revered.
Where we celebrated each new line,
each grey hair, each extra pound.

Where we looked back
at our younger selves tenderly,
able to see how much we didn't know
and how hard we were trying
to find ourselves, when really
we were there all along.

Where there was no such thing
as plus sizes or botox,
where we gazed upon aging bodies
and sighed, where little girls
grew up into young women
who grew up into strong adults
who believed in themselves, trusted
their instincts, spoke their minds,
shared their ideas and quirks,
wore what they wanted, sang
their hearts out, loved the skin
they were in no matter their pant size
and ran the show.

Knowing that anger and grief
didn't have to be hidden,
that to grow older is a kind of joy,
that kindness is a gift to savor,
that strength is in the hips,
the heft, the spirit and eyes
and lips and hair and neck and breasts
and thighs and calves and belly
of each of us.

A time when we grew as comfortable with silence
as noise, as at ease with our company
as we are with helping others,
as free and fierce as birds of prey.

Having more power in your pinky
finger than the patriarchy has in its
entire history of keeping us small.

Now look in the mirror.
Tell yourself five things about yourself
that are strong, unique, hard-won,
and worth not only keeping but celebrating.

Run your hands over your curves,
through your hair, over the ridges
and across the whole glorious landscape
of your body, and smile.

Nobody has to know. Nobody has to hear
you roar or moan, nobody has to see you
loving yourself, nobody has to witness
this sea change. We'll just feel it
in the way your voice punctures
the pockets where your silence used to live.

We'll sense it in your shoulders,
the way your chin is parallel to the floor
and the top of your head seems
ever so slightly higher than before.
We'll feel it when you walk into the room.
We'll hear it when you hum
to a resting child.

Embody this: Everything you have been,
every hardship and every hassle,
every harrowing passage and every hallelujah
is here written on your face,
written into your voice
written into every minute of your aging.

{2017}