WAR CRY

For the women who refuse to kneel

I am done.

Done with men
who kneel in the name of Jesus Christ
and rise unchanged.

Done with holy words
used as hiding places.

Do not preach Muhammad at me
while silencing women.
Do not quote Buddha
while deciding our bodies bind us to the earth.

There is nothing divine
about control.

Nothing sacred
about fear.

You do not get to break us
and call it sin.
You do not get to harm us
and call it human.

And you do not
do not
get to forgive yourself
for what you have done to others.

That door is not yours.

We are not your absolution.

We are the consequence.

We are the blood-door.
The threshold.
The place where darkness
turns into breath.

We reach beyond this world
and return
carrying life.

And still
you called us weak.

You burned us once.

You will try again
with quieter flames
shame,
silence,
obedience dressed as virtue.

But we remember.

We remember before you named us.

We remember the stars
in our bones.

And yes
small men will always fear
what they cannot contain.

Let them.

Let them choke
on the sound of us
rising without permission.

No more shrinking.
No more softening.
No more asking.

Rise, sisters

not gentle,
not agreeable,
not theirs.

Rise ancient.
Rise wild.
Rise ungovernable.