Galentine

While I adore my husband / I must proclaim / my first and longest love / for the women in my life. / The confidants who preceded him / the comrades who will outlive him. / The girls who invented and created / and imagined worlds with me / in the family room /  in the mulch / in the woods / on the playgrounds / in the playrooms. / To those young bold-hearted teens who dreamt with me / Who drove their first miles with me / with tender acceleration / and ten and two hands / and right – left – right glances / who painted vivid plans / for our collective future. 

To those sisters and siblings / who challenged me / championed me / expanded my worldviews / opened doors to cultures / and faiths / and family dynamics / and mindsets / and ways of being. Those who nourished me / with stunning insights / over bowls of Lucky Charms or stir-fry / with their brilliance / and their charming turn of tongue / cracking high-brow jokes / in the corners of a dining hall / or trekking down paths / to a distant lecture hall. To those more senior students / who lit the way / Who held high / the Lanterns of Truth / the light of Meaning / the hope of Wisdom.

To the ones who showed me that I mattered / not as a foil / not as how I can serve a man. / Those who educated me / in self love / Who believed me / Who held me in heartbreak / Who ushered me through healing / Who hyped me in pursuing audacious ambition / Who sped-walked with me over hills and hassles/ Who wept with me when our world reveals her limitations on checking the untamed cruelties of men.

To my female kin and kindred friends / I love you / with a fierceness / that reflects / the shimmering strength / of your convictions / the depth of your anger / the breadth of your souls / the length of your wisdom / that no formula can fully calculate.

To my elders / Our Mothers / Our Grandmothers and Grand Meres / Our Great Great ancestors / Those who carved a path of possibility / Who set the tone of what not to tolerate, to cast off and grow through / Who had bigger hopes for us / Than they could live themselves / Those who shattered many ceilings but not all / Those who left more for us / to take up ourselves.

To my peers who independently cycle with me through rage and raucous laughter / undulating sine and cosine / emotive DNA helices / always tangoing / yet never crashing / each a wave cresting on their own moon’s pull /such that at any time there is both cheer and crisis / chaos and clarity. / To those queens who remind me to feel it all / to absorb the power and gather the pain / To those who with me raise hands aloft as we revel in the beauty of this life. 

To those who huddle together with me under a shared chenille throw on sofas with warm pets and cold beverages /as we reel / in the horrors / of the latest news. / To our daughters / our children / and the generations we will never meet / may you feel this throbbing love / for your well being and progress. / To those we never met or will meet / yet to whom we are / karmically woven in fate. 

To the women / who will join me / in our elder commune / and grow gardens / and craft art / and dance on the cobblestones / in the shared courtyard / of our sunlight estate / in Southern Europe / where men can visit / but never stay. 

This is a love letter /to the realest deepest / loves of my life. Thank you women. / Happy Galentine’s Day /to my Truest Loves. / You are magic / embodied / Long may you Love.