THE OMEN IN WOMEN
It is only playing Words With Friends
that I see what has been there all along—
why men are afraid of us
if we are more than one,
why we are afraid of each other.
I place my W above OMEN and score
a double word. True, there is such a thing
as a good omen, just as there is such a thing
as a good witch. But try to use both
omen and women in a sentence
and see if your prophesy is one
of blessing and fortune. Yes,
men have been in women all along,
each Y chromosome persistent even when we
change the spelling to womyn.
My “Friend” is a gender-free computer app
who makes me simultaneously less
and more alone. I am a singular woman, scrambled
and Scrabbled—ma now/wan om/ow, man.
By the same author
Beginning and Whatever Doesn’t Kill Your Mother Makes Her Stronger
One of the first days my mom’s in the ICU, I try to describe