Am I still a woman
Even if I choose a career
Over having children?
Is that my only true
Value
Validation
In this Civilized
World?
So when the corporation
Down the street
Saves their bottom line
By dropping something
Illegal in mine
And I lose
My uterus
My breasts
Am I still a woman?
When a drunk driver
Leaves the bar
And crashes into my car
Killing my three year old
Daughter
And leaving me paralyzed
And unable to have
Any more children
Am I still a woman?
If I have never
Experienced an orgasm
Because they mutilated
My clitoris
And sewed up my vagina
Because they believed
That even having a sensation
Of being sexual
Was a sin
Am I still a woman?
When I am born into
This cruel cruel world
And know to the core
of my soul
since I was a child of
five
that I wanted to be
just like mommy
and the sight
of my own genitals
made me want to puke
and I went to the doctor
and I had the surgery
and took the drugs
Am I still a woman?
If I was born with
Down syndrome
And against all odds
I fell in love
With someone else
Like me
But I have no marital rights
Because I am found
Mentally incompetent
To decide for myself
Am I still a woman?
Or is who I am
Not in anyone
Else's hands
Just ash in the mouths
Of people who have
Forgotten their
Humanity…
Because I think
The only person
Who can answer
This question
Is the woman
Who is asking.