Goddesses Incognito
Underneath
the drab,
the daily,
we are passionate goddesses parading in
spangles
glinting jewels
shimmering cloth
that mirror our enticing hips.
Underneath ragged watchcaps,
we are tender goddesses
crowned in
headwraps
tiaras
mantillas
bandanas
that accentuate our nobility.
Underneath blowsy t-shirts,
blazing ads in giant orange letters scrawled across our chests,
we are opulent goddesses wrapped in a splendor of
plaids
kente
batik —
rich in colors that males
don’t even know the names
much less the significance of.
Behind plastic face masks that claim to guard us from infection,
we are amusing goddesses
roaring out the music of joy
harmonies of silver giggles
cymbal crashes of belly laughs
organ peal guffaws
in happy certainty of our right to
pleasure given,
pleasure taken.
We are hidden where you expect us least.
Show us due homage
and we may flash you a glimpse
into our hidden realm.
Or we may not.
The unexpected entices goddesses
most of all.
Map
My hand
gripped into yours
seeks a pathway to your heart
searches through the veiny runs
joys intermingling at the rip
fourth finger-traced.
Susan Meehan is the author of Talking to the Night (2017), and Goddesses Incognito (2018), and was the winner of the DC Poet Project in 2017, an open competition created to surface new poetic voices. Poetry is Susan’s second, or third career. She recently completed a career in local government service, first as Mayor Marion Barry’s constituent service director for Ward Two and subsequently as D.C.’s first Patient Advocate, providing services to the city’s drug and alcohol addicts. Now retired, she remains active in local politics with her husband of more than fifty years.
Image of Proserpine by Dante Gabriel Rossetti – EAH009jkJzYVMw at Google Cultural Institute, zoom level maximum Tate Images (http://www.tate-images.com/results.asp?image=N05064&wwwflag=3&imagepos=1), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13458627
