Pussy

When I hear the word pussy, 
a character from bedtime stories 
slang turns to cuss making unruly the double S
the hiss a snaky distaste that bends boy’s knees 
at the edge of vulgar, vulva, vagina

slang turns to cuss making unruly the double S 
preferring to knock us up and tear us down
at the edge of vulgar, vulva, vagina
the Y after puss as if we belonged to them

preferring to knock us up and tear us down 
our tresses no less tough, our trusses a bridge 
the Y after puss as if we belonged to them
accused of pussy-whipping men, hushed in groups

our tresses no less tough, our trusses a bridge 
the hiss a snaky distaste that bends boy’s knees
accused of pussy-whipping men, hushed in groups
and I hear the word pussy, a character from bedtime stories.

Laurel Benjamin is a native of the San Francisco Bay Area, where she invented a secret language with her brother. She has work forthcoming or published in Lily Poetry Review, Black Fox, Word Poppy Press, Turning a Train of Thought Upside Down: An Anthology of Women's Poetry, South Florida Poetry Journal, Trouvaille Review, The Fourth River, Limit Experience, California Quarterly, Mac Queens Quinterly, among others. Affiliated with the Bay Area Women’s Poetry Salon and the Port Townsend Writers, she holds an MFA from Mills College.