Where are you my wild women? - a poem by Amanda Oaks

lost petition: for an endangered species 
Amanda Oaks applauding Clarissa Pinkola Estés
 in: http://www.kindovermatter.com/2010/12/where-are-you-my-wild-women.html

"where are you my wild women on
the brink of brutish but upholding
a close upkeep of grace & beauty, 

growing taller than those old bones, 

swelling & singing deeper than you 

ever thought possible, does that 

dark man visit your dreams, breathe 

down your neck, sayin’ hey lady you'd 

better pay attention, i told him last
night that i crossed that sacred, 

shallow river seven times, he said 

woman, do it slower next time, you 

gotta be silent to hear the crackle
of the fire, i said that i've seen too
many fingers go quick to lips, that my 

flames burn on the inside & they're not 

hard to miss, that our submissiveness
has been the cement holding together
our mother’s mismanagement & it's 

his mess that bloats all our hearts, 

popping red balloons too heavy to
float, we have held in our tender 

hands the same hopes & worries 

of our mothers & their mothers &... 

our minds have caged the same bird 

too many times over, so i will not go
gentle into this night & when i open 

my eyes your ghost will not guide
me to my death because i run with 

a pack of wolves, we meet our men
halfway speaking the same language,
we roll around in our rusty double 

beds, mamas & papas of god shouting
thunder, spitting lightning, so don't 

you tell me that silence is golden,
our hands have been in our pockets 

cupping loose change & lost buttons
for far too many years now, so this 

is my call, my plea, my appeal, where 

are you my wild-wild women, let’s
meet our men in the middle & show
the world what it means to be
free"

(Amanda wrote this poem after reading Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés.)