Woman

Woman

A Sestina by Jessica Tucker

She is the woman who sits at the empty bus stop

With a hoarder’s mentality hanging on to

Seemingly unimportant items from another man’s trash.

She’s the unpleasant lady with a past no one

Cares to think about because they are distracted by

Her filled black bags, matted hair and distant stares.

She’s the angry woman yelling as everyone stares

At the train wreck of a situation that no one can stop.

Instead, they give admonishing looks but walk by

As she continues her unfair shrieking while the two

Cashiers fight a battle that the woman has already won.

She’s the woman who everyone looks at as trash-

-y. Yes, she is comparable to an item you would trash

And never look back at, because she doesn’t deserve the stares

You cast on her. She is the woman working the street at 1

O’clock in the morning with no intent to stop

Her self-degradation or the sales of her body to

Any woman or man with cash in hand, who is ready to buy.

She is the victimized woman who refuses to say goodbye

To a man who throws blows, treats her like trash,

And screams obscene things at her until she is too

Embarrassed to care about the weight of the scared stares

She receives from bystanders wishing that he would stop.

Yet she still tells her family and friends that he is the one.

She is the fashionista, searching for a sale, a buy one, get one

In the clearance section of some random department store by

The Saks Fifth Ave. that she could never afford to stop

In, instead, she creates unique styles from items people call trash

And her limitless style causes everyone to cast envious stares

As she struts down the street on a mission to

Change the concept of fashion. She is the woman who is two

Days away from changing the world, and being the one

Who climbs past the glass ceiling at the top of those stairs

That women try so hard to climb so that they can say goodbye

To low paying jobs and careers and a man’s occupational trash

And she conquers all without the need to take a pit stop.

These are the women: climbing invisible stairs,

Hoarding a lifetime of trash, wishing for the means to buy,

Not telling an abuser to stop, combined by a solitaire trait: being a woman.