Toxic Femininity
By Tori Reynolds
In the shower I rinse
all the good men
the nice men
the well-meaning and gentle
men who have done me
right over the years
from my skin.
They slip off—
slicking over my neck,
breasts, hips, taking
their gifts: gumballs,
jars of mustard,
a free car wash.
Under the pelt
of scalding drops
I become
stripped bark,
root stalk.
I peel my plated
kindness,
become the autumn gingko
shedding
its every gold leaf
in a single day.
See the sweep
of my yellow skirt
how it dusts my feet
with coins, turns to rot
then dirt.
My bark foils woodpeckers
repels the nuthatch
poisons green lacewings,
my seed smells
like vomit.
At my feet,
on your knees,
rear back
catch a glimpse
of my topmost branch.
Brave the climb, and I’ll snap your neck
like tinder
when you fall from one of my
graceful thumbs.Tori Reynolds is currently an MFA student in poetry at Bennington College. Her poems have been accepted or published most recently in Painted Bride Quarterly, Main Street Rag, Cave Wall, The Greensboro Review, and others. Her poems have been finalists for the North Carolina Literary Review’s James Applewhite Prize. She works on U.S. death penalty cases as clinical psychologist who specializes in trauma and lives in the little literary haven of Hillsborough, NC.
3/6 / Meet the Artist with visiting poet-in-residence Keetje Kuipers / The Library at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 6:00 pm EST / Free
3/6 / Poetry Reading with visiting poet-in-residence Keetje Kuipers + local writer Julie Marie Wade / The Library at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 7:30 pm EST / Free
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What a smooth, subtle, potent poem! There is so much to love here: the angle introduced by the title, the development that comes from the conceit of the tree, the images, and the interesting complication of message, which intertwines femininity and gender norms with selfhood, enacting an uneasy personal growth. I especially admire the lineation and the sounds made in this poem from assonance and near rhyme, etc. Tori Reynolds gives a beautiful reading of her poem in the audio recording, too! Thanks SWWIM for another excellent poem!