My Womanhood

My Womanhood encompasses it all:

That which you call female

That which you call male

That which travels from one to the other and

that which has found its place in between.

My Womanhood encompasses it all.

I do not know what you mean when you say female

I do not know what you mean when you say male.

What do you mean?

What DO you mean?

My Womanhood encompasses it all.

My Womanhood does not sit in my Body

My Womanhood is this Body’s embrace

its nest and its grave.

My Womanhood does not sit in my Body

yet my Womanhood has taken shape in this Body

has molded it into a cavern, a cave

for stories torn and untold

for stories yet to be born:

For the Wisdom keeper, the Priestess

bringing light

to the threshold of Death.

For the Princess

who grew out of her pink dress

now scrambling and stumbling

through brambles and thickets of thorns.

For the Warrior, the wounded

who has put down her sword now

armour undone

her heart unfolding

calling at the gates of the Cold Queen:

Let me in! You need me!

And: For the trickster

the fool’s sister

who, centuries ago

has been buried alive

but now one spring as a sprout

springs forth

shouting:

ALIVE!

For all of these and more

My Womanhood has made me

a cave, a safe space, a nesting place

May this Body become

their birthplace

May this throat be their birth canal

this breath be their voice

this voice be their blood.

My Womandhood

welcomes them all.