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| washable pads |More poetry: Dr. Michael Abramson's poetry, "timeless," by Joe Davis


The poem received an award from the annual Berkeley poetry dinner contest, 1999.

Read her "Tribute to Today." More poetry.

"A Death in the Family"

by Ellaraine Lockie

 

I check toilet papers for

the pinkish stain

That announces its arrival

My time of the month

Link to the moon

Mankind enabler

Menstrual period

A period fading into

a question mark

Soon to be an unpunctuated blank

Ovarian governors wither on

fallopian vines

An oncoming death in my

family of organs

Death by a berserk body-clock

That no repairman can fix

Forty years of dependable dates

With my most feminine old friend

Have become surprise visits

No calls first

Just discourteous drop-ins

Surely an Emily Post violation

But not nature's

Her way of surviving the fittest

Giving babies I'll never have

To my daughters

And their daughters

My body rebels against the bias

Fights a noble retirement battle

Opposed by hormonal brigades

A futile war

That mutates into mourning

Evolves to acceptance

Changes to contentment

Satisfaction when the pink stain

announces its cramps

Leakage

Smell

Messy sex

On someone else's paper



First publication credit of the poem belongs to "Black Spring Review" with subsequent publication to the following:
"Eclectic Woman" issue of "The Sweet Annie & Sweet Pea Review" and the chapbook, MIDLIFE MUSE by Ellaraine Lockie.

MIDLIFE MUSE can be ordered for $4.00 from Poetry Forum, 5713 Larchmont Dr., Erie, PA 16509, (814) 866-2543.
It was the First Place winner in Poetry Forum's 2000 poetry chapbook contest.


More poetry

news | first page | contact the museum | art of menstruation | artists (non-menstrual) | belts | bidets | Bly, Nellie | MUM board | books (and reviews) |
cats
| company booklets directory | costumes | cups | cup usage | dispensers | douches, pain, sprays | essay directory | extraction | famous people |
FAQ | humor | huts | links | media | miscellaneous | museum future | Norwegian menstruation exhibit | odor | pad directory | patent medicine |
poetry directory
| products, current | religion | menstrual products safety | science | shame | sponges | synchrony | tampon directory |
early tampons | teen ads directory | tour (video) | underpants directory | videos, films directory | washable pads