Funny Thing

Bettie Page, letter to the editor, The Tennessean, September 17, 1939

So many letters in the Forum
regarding the shocking display
abbreviated attire

speaking my p-i-e-c-e
piece.

Specimens of the male element
have written:

Allows her body to be exposed
                        (out-RAGE-ously exposed)
                        lower than a member of the canine family. 

Funny to me
how all the men
would walk 50 miles
break their necks
to see a girl in her bathing suit
(I don’t think I’ve exaggerated).

Male sex will sit up and talk
about opposite sex
their legs!

but I’d wager
No man today
would escort a woman
covered
(com-PLETE-ly covered)
from head to foot.

 

 

Funny Thing

“End Family Detention March,” Nashville, Tenn., June 30, 2018

Funny thing, Bettie Page:

The outrage parades

We mouth it
few words to clothe

We have edited the unnecessary.
Still, they clad us in gawk.

We are barking
in Dragon Park today

wearing loose, short, light
as gauzy as possible
carrying water
fighting for hot and sweaty children

We are the swollen teats of mothers
with children apart in cages and no paperwork

lower than a canine family
to some men in the White House.

We don’t think
we’ve exaggerated the need
to say this.

This is our letter written in
water from neck to crevasse

hottest between our breasts

Everywhere and Nashville
It’s 1939, 18XX, 2018.