sitting in the boardroom

the I'm-so-bored room

listening to the suits

talk about their world

they can make straight lines

out of almost anything

except for the line

of my upper lip when it curls

dressed in my best greasy skin

and squinty eyes

I'm the only part of summer here

that made it inside

in the air-conditioned building

decorated with coporate flair

I wonder

can these boys smell me bleeding

though my underwear



there's men wearing the blood

of the women they love

there's white wearing the blood of the brown

but every woman learns to bleed from the moon

and we bleed to renew life

every time it's cut down

I got my vertebrae all stacked up

as high as they go

I but I still feel myself sliding

from the earth that I know

so I excuse myself and leave the room

say my period came early

but it's not a minute too soon



I go and find the only other woman on the floor

is the secretary sitting at the desk by the door

I ask her if she's got a tampon I could use

she says

oh honey, what a hassle for you

sure I do

you know I do

I say

it ain't no hassle, no, it ain't no mess

right now it's the only power

that I possess

these businessmen got the money

they got the instruments of death

But I can make life

I can make breath

sitting in the boardroom

the I'm-so-bored room

listening to the suits talk about their world

I didn't really have much to say

the whole time I was there

so I just left a big brown bloodstain

on their white chair