A WOMAN'S WORLD

poem by Angel Rosen

Edited by Eliana Horning

I want to go to a place

where my body relates to the sun,

knows the answers to its questions,

free from the burdens of twilight and

shadowy expectations. I used to want

to be skin and bones in a silvery affair—

crowned, adored, and known,

I wanted to see strangers manifesting

the bizarre appearance of the outside of me.

I asked for a different assignment,

one where I swallow less guilt and

be feel enchanted by indulgence,

I thought if I could visit a place

where each woman is only

surveilled by her own ambition

and not unforgivably analyzed

by a masculine eye, I could

have a moment of peace

from my mind’s violence

and my decade long relationship

with shrinking myself.

I want to go to

a place where all noise is familiar,

in soft spoken tones, harshness

alleviated from the earth. A moment where

I do not question my volume, my curvature,

and the validity of my art. I make

no excuses for my passion here. I

do not pour out half my glass,

cut my cake into fractions,

display the shortest poem, thin myself

out to be flatter and easier to write on.

I seek out my mother, I seek out

my sisters, I seek out the survivors and

the makers and the scientists and for

a moment now we can be as necessary

and inaccessible as the sun—

Our bodies flourish when

they are not questioned and charted,

our minds are free to dance and celebrate.

We love with a love born absent

of expectations, a love that cannot be

disguised as cruelty or disbelief, it is

a well-fed love

as brilliant as

womanhood.

Angel Rosen (she/her) is a queer, neurodivergent poet living in Pennsylvania. She writes about womanhood, mental illness and grief. She spends her time watching television, baking, playing board games with friends and reading poetry books. Angel began writing poetry when she was about eight years old and has been writing seriously now for over ten years and has two full-length poetry collections, Aurelia and Blake. She also have recent work in Olney Magazine, Evoke Lit and Acropolis Journal. These can all be found at angelrosen.com/publications.