I haven’t read a book of poems in quite some time. When I saw this book recommended by Business Insider as a good gift for a woman, I decided to check it out. It was readily available from the public library, and it was a quick read—little more than an hour to read. In that hour, I experienced beautiful language describing what it feels like to be female and how the world views the female human. Baer uses few words to convey deep meanings about relationships, marriage, having children, and more. Following are some of my highlights:
“Did you know when you bait a deer it’s called a violation, but when you poison a girl it’s called a date.”
“Female Candidate I like her but / aggressive tone / it’s not that she / now that I have daughters / if only she would / in that short haircut / nothing against the way she dresses / if she wasn’t a baby killer / I don’t know how he could marry / how she can stand up in those shoes / with a child in school / here comes the feminism / not enough / warmth is important / no class is the problem and / anti-woman is the word I would use / not American if she doesn’t / give glory to / show some leg / I cannot vote for the kind of woman who / has a stick up her / not my kind of girl”
“The week before my wedding, my friend’s dad said: just don’t get fat, like other wives do.”
“In her pelvis she holds her labors, long and slippery. In her clavicle, silent things. (Money and power. Safety and choice. Tiny banquets of shame.) In her hands she carries their egos, small and flimsy. In her mouth she holds their laughter, gentle currents, a cosmos of everything.”
“I dreamt myself into a mother, but when I became her, I had to dream her back into a woman.”
“What is this life? she thinks gaily. Still she covers her motherhood like a scandal. Hushes it like a profanity.”
