The Hurt | Linda Chown

To Name the Hurt

To name
the hurt was to name the Bible of her living:

the phantom scope of her trace.

Planets are for suns.
Hurts are for mild chills

who live without chapters 
and procreate 
yesterday's bones.

Elijah Miriam Ezekiel Sarah shine like poppies;

because 
she was, 
her chest felt like a stone
actually 
because 
she was 
the dawn of 
the sunset
born to
write 
new chapters.

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Women Talking

The great movie “Women Talking”
reminds me of the unseen violence 
we grew up with, not so much rape and abuse
and titillation alone but that throbbing gap
between good behavior and all the aching shock
of having to be quiet in it. Oh, what we knew silently
as ourselves and, sometimes, thank the universe,
a friend found us and we would sit crouched together
tight and try to be heard as one in our words,
milking our blurred feeling into
each another’s concentrated hearing.

Women talking is what I remember 
Most in the emotionally violent texture
Of a woman’s life in puberty.
How we were told to behave, to be good, to be quiet…

—Feb 20,2023

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©2023 Linda Chown
All rights reserved

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